FuturEd Policy for Consumer Guides
as Transformation Tools in
the Education and Training Industry

The FuturEd™ mission is to help change learning systems in the future and for the future.

Consumer Guides contribute directly this mission as they encourage the consumers of education and training products and services to seek the highest quality and make informed choices between options.

The development of the FuturEd consumer guides is based on the following premises.

• There is considerable choice in education and training (E/T) products and services (P/S), locally and globally, aimed at various target customers or consumers.
• As with other goods and services, Canadian consumers have the right and the responsibility to make choices about E/T products and services when they are investing their own resources: time and finances.
• The choice between E/T products and services is made difficult for customers by:
• the sheer quantity available (e.g., community colleges, training videos, on-line courses, universities, private coaches, computer programs, books)
• variable and unassessed quality (i.e., lack of standards and quality assurance in many products and services)
• different provider mandates and purposes (e.g., public or commercial)
• the complexity of providing education and training products and services (i.e., the interrelated elements of inputs, processes and practices, and outcomes)
• constant change in this field (e.g., new products and services, new imperatives for learning)
• lack of a consumer culture vis-à-vis education and training, with concurrent advice and advocacy agencies (e.g., Consumer Standards Association for technological products, Better Business Bureau for many services).
• Helping Canadians to make an informed choices regarding education and training is important because:
  • it can be very costly to the individual, in terms of both finances and time spent
• success is important to both consumers and providers, and made more probable with good plans and realistic expectations on the part of the consumer
• responsible consumers create a better marketplace
• it is consistent with social goals of providing consumer education and safeguarding consumer rights*.

According to the Consumers Council of Canada**, consumers have the following Right to Education.

The consumer right to consumer education is the right or opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to be an informed consumer. Consumers are educated in a variety of ways, through pamphlets and brochures about products and services often put out by industry associations, by media stories about a particular product or service, by asking questions of those selling something and of people they know who may have experience with the item. There is no single way to educate. At issue is the right of the consumer to find out about a product or service when they need to know - usually then they want to make a purchase. Particularly in the area of large purchases, when significant dollars are involved, it is critical that consumers be able to get at the appropriate information. The question is, whose obligation is it to ensure that this information is available? In today's world of government downsizing, increasingly consumers must look to businesses and industry to provide information.

Our responsibility as consumers is to become informed about products we are going to buy. Asking at the point of sale, at the counter or with a salesman is a good place to start. Seek out generic information about the product or service before you purchase. An informed consumer is also a wise consumer.

 

According to the Consumers’ Association of Canada***, consumers have the following explicit rights and responsibilities.

Consumer Rights: government legislation and ethical business recognize these:

• The RIGHT to be informed
• The RIGHT to Safety
• The RIGHT to redress
• The RIGHT to choose
• The RIGHT to a healthy environment
• The RIGHT to a consumer education
• The RIGHT to be heard

Consumer Responsibilities

• The RESPONSIBILITY to search out and use available information
• The RESPONSIBILITY to read instructions and take precautions
• The RESPONSIBILITY to fight for the quality you believe you should be receiving
• The RESPONSIBILITY to make your own independent and informed consumer choices
• The RESPONSIBILITY to minimize environmental damage through careful choice and use of consumer goods and services
• The RESPONSIBILITY to take advantage of educational opportunities
• The RESPONSIBILITY to make your own opinions known

According to the Better Business Bureau Code of Advertising****: the primary responsibility for truthful and non-deceptive advertising rests with the advertiser.

In Canada, according to Industry Canada’s Consumer Connection*****, responsibilities to protect consumers are shared by federal and provincial governments as follows. Both the federal and provincial governments believe that business, consumers and government each have a role to play in making sure our marketplace is fair for everyone. Laws can set and monitor the standards, and business can operate openly and fairly, but it is a well-informed consumer who is best able to make wise marketplace decisions.

Federal Government Responsibilities

The federal government has assumed responsibility for national marketplace standards and for ensuring a fair, efficient and competitive marketplace for producers, traders and consumers. Current federal consumer statutes cover product safety (except electrical equipment), competition, labeling and weights and measures. Federal statutes, naturally, apply throughout Canada. In practice, federal government is responsible for national standards.

Provincial Government Responsibilities

Provincial statutes cover such matters as the conditions of sale, guarantees and licensing. Generally speaking, services are regulated by the provinces or, in some cases, by municipalities. Most provinces have a statute to control unfair business practices. Provincial Acts vary from province to province, however, the protection given to consumers is broadly similar (but not identical) across the country. Provincial governments are responsible for contractual matters and most sectoral issues.

Within this framework, then, the focus of this policy for decision-making tools is the consumer. There is no intention to ensure that the information that the learner acquires is truthful and/or non-deceptive. There is no intention to rate education and/or training products and/or services.

The intention of FuturEd consumer guides is to provide a set of questions, with research techniques and suggested information sources, that a consumer of E/T products and services might ask to ascertain the suitability of a P/S for his/her learning needs; questions that are:

• comprehensive, i.e., covering all aspects of learning P/S;
• unbiased but based on accepted "good practice;" and
• consumer-oriented, i.e., focusing on the needs of the learner rather than the provider.

Notes

* A list of Canadian consumer agencies is on-line at http://www.canadaonline.tqn.com/msub10.htm
** On the Internet at http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Floor/3105/EDUCATION.HTM
*** On the Internet at http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/crm/law/cac06.html
**** On-line at http://www.bbb.org/advertising/adcode.html
***** On-line at strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ca00179e.html