The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) has chosen the consortium of Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning and NIIT Canada as the future provider of registration education for real estate salespeople and brokers in the province.
After a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, Humber and NIIT Canada were selected to design, develop, administer and deliver the new program, which will launch on July 1, 2019. Students enrolling until that date will enrol with the current provider, the OREA Real Estate College.
RECO registrar Joseph Richer says, “The new program will bring together the best in local real estate knowledge and education delivery and leading edge expertise in program development. It will help ensure that students are practice-ready when they begin their real estate careers.”
Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) president Ettore Cardarelli says in a news release, “Given that OREA has been the provider of real estate education in Ontario for over 60 years, RECO’s decision did not come without significant disappointment. However, we are extremely proud of our accomplishments over the last 60 years, and we welcome the opportunity for OREA to refocus and strengthen its core member services.”
Tim Hudak, OREA CEO said, “The association continues to forge ahead with renewed energy and focus, and a reinvigorated outlook on an exciting future for OREA. OREA’s role in real estate education may be changing, but our efforts to consistently raise and uphold the high standards of education we helped set will remain unchanged.”
Established in 1967, Humber College offers programs to more than 29,200 full-time students and 23,000 continuing education students. From the 1980s through to 2000, it was a delivery partner of the original Real Estate Education Program, delivering courses to over 18,000 students.
“Humber has a strong industry reputation for credential testing and delivery of professional designation programs,” says Alister Mathieson, vice-president, advancement and external affairs, Humber College. “Further, Humber is closely connected with our local and provincial communities, and the opportunity to deliver specialized education and skills to real estate salespersons and brokers will help contribute to Ontario’s economy as newly trained professionals enter the workforce.”
NIIT Learning Solutions (Canada) Limited is a subsidiary of NIIT Limited. It offers multi-disciplinary learning management and training delivery solutions to institutions, individuals and corporations in over 40 countries.
RECO says the decision was made following a four-year process that included “extensive research and consultation with the real estate sector, education providers and regulatory bodies; the distribution of a white paper on RECO’s vision for registration education; and a public RFP that was distributed broadly.”
When launched in 2019, the program will offer courses in-class, in real-time virtual classrooms and through self-paced e-learning modules, RECO says.
