New Dawn College had half of students default on loans over 6 years
New Dawn College reported a 47 per cent rate of default amongst students between 2007-2013
A Cape Breton-based private career college where nearly half of its students default on their government loans says it provides people with information about job prospects related to their field of study.
A CBC analysis of provincial data shows 47 per cent of New Dawn College students defaulted on their loans over a six-year period, ending in 2013.
During that time 44 former students defaulted on nearly $195,000 in government loans.
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"We provide all of our students, as soon as they submit an application, with labour market information for the field that they're going into, and talk through with them how those prospects might relate to repayment of student loans," Erika Shea, New Dawn's communication director, told CBC Cape Breton's Mainstreet.
On its website, New Dawn advertises "high-quality, career-oriented training." According to Shea, that training does not guarantee "they are going to choose to work in the field that they've studied to work in."
"A number of things could happen and those could be related to family circumstances … history of employment, whether or not they have the supports to commit to this new type of employment," said Shea.
Falling behind on payments has major implications: it tarnishes credit ratings, making it difficult to secure future loans. It also means that public money handed out in the form of loans is less likely to be repaid into government coffers.
Since the 2012-2013 cohort at New Dawn, the college has since discontinued four of its courses, explained Shea.
"Part of the reason we no longer offer those four programs is because we did start to wonder ... how many of those graduates are able to find and keep stable employment in their field," Shea said.
"And when that kind of came into question, we asked ourselves, could we continue to offer [the courses to] them, and decided that we couldn't."
New Dawn College is part of New Dawn Enterprises, a registered corporation as well as the Nova Scotia Association of Career Colleges.
New Dawn has two registered charities, including New Dawn Community Development Educational Foundation, but the career courses operate separately.