Hundreds of staff and many language students were left in limbo following the sudden closure of the established L’Estrie Language School in Canada earlier this year. Thanks to Languages Canada’s Education Completion and Assurance Plan (eCAP) all students on language training programmes were able to continue their studies elsewhere.
The school, also known as Estrie International, was based in the capital Ottawa and with a branch in nearby Gatineau too. It unexpectedly declared bankruptcy at the end of January after failing to meet costs in what its President and Owner, Louise Charest, has described as a “difficult climate.”
Teachers claimed fierce competition among language schools was driving down tuition fees and leading to fears of further school failure
Director of Member Services for Languages Canada, Linda Auzins, told The PIE News: “Our member programmes in Ottawa opened their doors and they welcomed students. Some of them actually honoured commitments for six, eight and 10 months that were pre-paid to L’Estrie.”
“GEOS Ottawa was very instrumental in gathering all the students. They took all of the students in for that first week while we worked to find placements for them at the other schools,” she explained.
Estrie claimed to be one of the oldest and largest private providers of French and English language training and according to a video news report on CBC News, many of its clients were government staff in the bilingual capital. Students undertaking government training programmes were not covered by Language Canada’s eCAP protection.
The school closure made headline news in Canada
Auzins said that the closure happened “overnight,” presenting a challenge to place students, with not many programme alternatives.
Languages Canada has around six private language programmes in Ottawa compared with Vancouver and Toronto, where it has around 30 to 40 member schools.
The “challenging environment” for many stand-alone schools in Canada, according to Auzins, is to compete in student recruitment with chain schools with large marketing budgets and marketers across the globe.
While the Ottawa Citizen reports that the school “couldn’t afford to compete for government contracts and pay teachers an appropriate wage”, Auzins added that L’Estrie had also recently taken over a large space and perhaps high leasing costs had been underestimated.
The CBC news report also reported that teachers claimed fierce competition among language schools was driving down tuition fees and leading to fears of further school failure.
Languages Canada was formed in 2008 and is Canada’s premier language organisation made up of English and French programmes. It is recognised by the Canadian government and internationally and the L’Estrie closure is the first and only school in its network to be shut down.