The Director of Studies at TAV College, Eli Meroz sits with a group of foreign students to explain to them the Quebec educational system. He addresses the difference between DEC and AEC programs as well as the progression of studies in Quebec, starting from pre-school all the way to University. Following this video is a another video where the director of studies responds to students' questions.
The major divergence is that in Quebec we finish high school in grade eleven. After finishing grade eleven students enter a system called CYGEP or college. That is where TAV comes in. We are a college or a CYGEP. The college is an intermediary step between high school and university as well as a junior college system that offers professional education.
When students finish high school the only option available to them is to go into a CEGEP program and more specifically into a DEC program. DEC (Diploma of Collegial Studies) programs are divided into two broad categories. There is a technical DEC which is a three-year course of studies and there’s a DCS pre-university program which is a two-year course of study. Most of the students graduating from high school in Quebec are going into the 2-year pre-university DEC. They finished high school, but can’t go to university directly. They must first go into a 2-year program that prepares them for university studies.
From the perspective of a student who is finishing high school, the 2-year pre-university DCS program is sort of like the last year of high school (when comparing our education system to the rest of the world) and your first year of university. Upon completing their pre-university DEC, they go into a university program. The undergraduate programs are typically three years or 90 credits, whereas, in the states, they are four years or 120 credits. The rest of Canada is similar to the States in that way. You would do 12 years of high school and 4 years of University. Here we do 11 years (elementary and high school), 2 years (CEGEP) and 3 years (University, undergraduate studies).
There also exists a three year Technical DEC program which is similar to the two-year program. However, its objective is to give the student a job skill at the end of the program. Upon completing the program, you should be able to enter the work field. Programs that are available include Early Childhood Education, Special Care Education, Social Work, Nursing, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Architectural Technology and more.
The reason these programs are similar to pre-university programs is that in completing this program whether is a two-year or a three-year program, they both satisfy admission requirement to university.
There is a 3rd category of studies offered at the college level which is the AEC (Attestation of Collegial Studies). This is a program which only focuses on providing job training skills. It is not a pre-university program. It is focused on enabling the student to access the workforce. For example, we have students doing programs like Internet Marketing, Office Systems, and Accounting, International Trade, Early Childhood Education, Special Education, and Special Care Counselling. These are amongst the different attestation programs that are available.
Attestation programs differ from DEC programs in another way. Every single DEC program will have a general education component. Since the objective of the DEC program is to prepare students for admission university the general education components are courses that are not related specifically to what you are studying. For example, regardless of which program you are in whether it be early childhood education or special care counseling, you’ll have to take four English courses. Also, you may be combined with other students that are in different programs. That is because the objective of general education is not specific to one program. You would also have to take humanities courses, French, physical education and elective courses.
There another difference in the DCS program. Upon finishing your program there is an additional requirement. There is a government English exit examination which you must write in order to obtain your Diploma of Collegial Studies. The exam consists of reading an essay (There are 3 essays, you have to choose one) and you then have to write a 750-word literary analysis of that essay. It’s quite comprehensive and because of that requirement, when we admit students who don’t speak English as their first language, we place higher admission requirements to get into the DCS program. When looking at the IEL scores of the students applying from countries where English is not their first language we are looking for a higher score. The reason for that is we don’t feel we are doing the student any favor by admitting them into a program and by the end of the program they are faced with challenges in passing the exit exam.
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