Bow Valley College - Advice?

[81MC]

Hey everyone,
I’m looking at taking taking a Business Diploma, maybe to eventually ladder into a degree, maybe not. I currently have a very good job related to the field of my Red Seal ticket, so while I’m not looking for any schooling to be my free ride to a ‘good’ job, I would like to get started on something that may open up some more doors for me professionally.
Does anyone have any experience, anecdotally or otherwise, with BVC? Universities accepting/not accepting transfer credits from them, employers not considering it to mean much etc. I know they aren’t held in the same regard as MRU or UofC, but they offer a strictly online program that might fit my bill. I think my professional repertoire, with a piece of paper attached would help my future in my current role, but don’t know how that applies to opportunities elsewhere. My thoughts are to bang out a Diploma and see how I like it, if it gets me further professionally, great. If not, I’d like to at least have learnt some stuff and have the ability to have it accepted as credit at other institutions.
Thanks for any insight.

[Hack&Lube]

If you are looking for a professional job, MRU and SAIT would probably be better options than Bow Valley College. I find that BVC programs cater a lot to immigrants and maybe even abuses that a little and the graduates find it very difficult to find employment or respectability compared to the other schools.

SAIT has the advantage of possibly connecting your trade to something and I think they do better in terms of ties to industry and businesses in job placements and work experience after graduation.

[Amethyst]

I get a lot of practicum students from Bow Valley where I work. One of the programs sends me good students but the other program, the students are very unprepared to come into a work situation. My experience with the college instructors matches that. The one from the "good" program is in touch with me before the student starts and keeps in touch throughout. The one from the "bad" program I rarely hear from unless I contact her about issues with the student. She seems to leave everything up to the student, and since the student tends to be unprepared for the work setting, this is not a good plan.

I guess my advice would be to find try to find people who took the particular program you are interested in and talk to them, because the quality appears to vary greatly.

[Kjesse]

Having a Red Seal is commendable, and if you want to build on that, that's even more commendable. Whatever your Red Seal is in, consider what skill combines with it to lead you to greater responsibility positions beyond being a front-line worker. Is it Finance? Accounting? Marketing? Administration?

BVC programs tend to be very job specific. If you already have a Red Seal and don't think you're into doing a 4 year business degree right now, go to SAIT for a 2 year diploma. You can even do it part time.

I don't see the value in a job training BVC program for you given you already have a Red Seal.

[calumniate]

The business admin diploma at bvc has become fairly transferable to mount royal and uofc these days. I would speak with someone first of course

[Dynamic]

I have no specific advice regarding BVC but I am also a Red Seal Journeymen who has in the last year was looking to upgrade my education. In my trade if you do a certain amount of college/university courses (around 200ish hours) you also qualify to get your Blue Seal, maybe your trade is the same. It's a good road to go down to keep learning, I'm really enjoying my classes.