Students find career college locked following Star exposé

Ken Miller's career college announced yesterday it was not accepting new students, in the wake of a Star investigation revealing that it churned out hundreds of unqualified health-care workers.

A note posted on the locked door at his Ontario Academy of Science and Technology apologized for "any inconvenience."

"I'm in shock," said a young Filipino nanny who waited for more than five hours outside the college hoping to talk with Miller. "I've been attending his school since May. Now I have no future. I have to start all over again."

The 30-year-old woman said she paid Miller about $1,400 of the $2,500 tuition he charges for his personal support worker program. Neither the school nor its certificates are recognized by the province.

At Queen's Park, the opposition pounded the government for being "asleep at the switch" after a Star reporter posing as a student graduated in just 15 days with no clinical training and a falsified work history supplied by Miller.

"This lack of accountability and oversight is indicative of the big-headed attitude that has plagued the Liberal government," said Jim Wilson (Simcoe-Grey), Conservative critic for colleges and universities.

The NDP's Rosario Marchese (Trinity-Spadina) asked "why there is no monitoring, no oversight, no control, no safeguards and no penalties on those unscrupulous operators?"

Deputy premier George Smitherman said Marchese was "just plain wrong." He said the ministry has "the capacity to address challenges that are known in private career colleges."

Outside Queen's Park, a vocal group of personal support workers rallied to push for the regulation of their profession.

"We take care of society's most vulnerable and we have no regulatory body to ensure that our personal support workers are ... being properly trained, and being recognized and respected for what they do," said Miranda Ferrier, the founder and president of PSW Canada.