In Canada you have two options: College or University (They are two different things). University is what you normally would think of when you are talking about education after high school. Universities are Academic Institutions. You go to University to become a Doctor, a Lawyer, a Psychologist, an Engineer, an Art Historian, a Teacher, etc. There are many more occupations than that of course, but what I am trying to get around to is that they are jobs that are academically driven. College on the other hand is Hands-on and Skill driven. You go to College to become an Animator, an Illustrator, an Interior Designer, a Movie Director, a Journalist, a Carpenter, a Welder, etc.

Although University and College were completely seperate at a time, in the last 5-10 years or so they have come to realize that they are beneficial to each other. So a bunch of Joint courses have been created to accomadate the need for both academics and hands-on skills in the workplace. In Joint Courses you take the academic side of things at a University and do the hands-on work at a College. For example: There is a Nursing program that is between Mohawk College and McMaster University. Mohawk is known for being a top Trades school, and McMaster Univerisity is well known for it’s medical programs. So at McMaster you do all the medical academic stuff and at Mohawk you actually put that stuff to use. I believe that Mohawk has a co-op for that program where you go to long-term care hospital to get a experience in the actually industry of nursing. Here are some careers you would do a Joint Program to become: Graphic Designer, Nurse, College Art Teacher, Architect, etc. I can’t think of many more at the moment. But they are usually jobs where Knowledge and Skills are equally important.

Since College is more Hands-on, the academic requirements are lower than Univerisity. Unfortunately because of that, people sometimes think that people who go to College aren’t “intelligent” or are “lazy”. In truth, College is just as difficult and demanding as Univeristy but in a different way. To get into an Animation program for example, you may not need to know any “knowledge” in terms of studying and taking tests, but you need to have drawing skills which I think are much more difficult to aquire than knowledge is. I took two years of “Visual and Creative Arts” at College, and now I am taking a year off to work (to raise money for next year), and to work on my Animation Portfolio so I can actually get in. Animation portfolios are very specific (Observation Life Drawing [Nude], Animal Drawings, Hand Drawings, Original Character Rotation, Action Poses, and Expression sheet, and Room Line Drawings [Room Drawings from Observation, not from imagination] among other things) and are very demanding in skill (You have to show your knowlege of structure, proportions, perspective, sense of spacial volume and you must have good line quality, compostion and believable characters). Also, Animation programs are very competitive. The one I want to get into accepts only about 130 students or so, but it gets 10,000 or more applicants every year. They have a scoring system, and there is minimum score that you have to meet. If too many people meet the minimum score, they’ll raise it.

Anyway, just because I am going to College doesn’t mean I am too stupid to go to University. I took all Univerisity courses in High school (There are two levels of academic-type classes you can take in Grades 9 and 10: Applied or Academic and two in Grades 11 and 12: College and Univerisity [in Ontario, anyway]. Universities require at least 6 U or M classes [M are classes that don't have those two levels such as : Art, Construction, Communication Technology, etc.] in your last year of High School and a 75% average at least). I took University English, Math, History, Science, etc. I got at least 80% in almost all my classes (92% or above in my Art classes: Visual Arts, Portfolio, Photography, etc.) and I graduated with Honours (with an average between 80% – 90% ). So I could have gone to Univeritsy if I so desired. But there are no programs in University that I am interested in. Also, I have wanted to be an animator since my Grade 10 teacher showed me that that was a viable option for me, having seen my drawings. I had never thought of that as a career path before.

Sorry for rambling on. I thought someone might be interested in this. To readers and any fellow Canadians readers: I live in Ontario and only know about the Ontario education system. I am not making assumptions about education all across Canada (I know High School in BC is only from Grade 10 – 12). I think the things I talked about in regards to University and College are country-wide but I am not 100% sure so correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks. :D

This is fairly well echoed from the fact the Scandinavian students were bored out of their minds while the Japanese students were seriously worried that they weren’t going to pass their classes.