What are the other Languages Spoken in Brazil?

Portuguese Language Museum in São Paulo There are a number of other languages spoken in Brazil, although even collectively they account for only a very small minority of the population. According to the 1940 Census, the most popular second language (after Portuguese) at the time was German. Although the percentage of Italian immigration to Brazil was much more significant than that of the Germans, the German language had many more speakers than the Italian one, according to that Census. The main reason for this was that two-thirds of the children of German immigrants spoke German at home, while half of the children of Italians spoke Portuguese at home. This illustrates the fact that the new Italian immigrants had a much easier time assimilating to the Portuguese language.

Today there are still pockets in Brazil where the German and Italian languages can still be heard. However, these languages are rarely taught in the nation’s schools. Most second-language learners now focus on Spanish and English, two of the most widespread languages in the world. Visit www.domyassignment.com to be assisted with your language assignments.

In the large city of São Paulo, Brazil, the native languages of the Korean, Chinese and Japanese people are fairly common in the immigrant districts. A Japanese-language newspaper, the São Paulo Shinbun, has been published in the city of São Paulo since 1946. In addition to São Paulo, there is also a significant community of Japanese speakers in the cities of Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará and Amazonas. Much smaller groups exist in Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and other parts of Brazil. Many Chinese, especially from Macau, speak a Chinese creole called Macanese (patuá or macaísta), aside from Mandarin and Cantonese.

Along with the immigrant languages that can occasionally be heard in certain sections of Brazil, dozens of discrete indigenous languages also remain. As mentioned briefly above, the Tupian, or Tupí-Guaraní, language group has especially influenced Brazilian place-names and added perhaps thousands of words and expressions to Brazilian Portuguese. Tupian was the principal language of Brazil’s native peoples before European contact, and it became the lingua franca between Indians and Portuguese traders, missionaries, adventurers, and administrators; it was widely used in the Amazon region and western Brazil until the 19th century. The Tupian influence also caused Brazilians to enunciate more clearly and to use more nasal speech patterns than their Iberian counterparts.

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Learn about the different eras in the Canadian history

Canada has a rich and proud history—a history full of plenty of setbacks and even more successes. In the following article we will discuss the various periods in Canada’s history and provide some pertinent information regarding the developments that helped shape this great nation into what it is today.

Canada: Prehistory

A Mammoth from Canada's prehistory, SourceAccording to archaeologists, there is evidence that the first natives in North America, of which Canada makes up more than 40 percent, first arrived some 40,000 years BCE (before the Common Era) by crossing a land bridge which had formed between Asia and Alaska during the latest Ice Age. In the United States, these people are often referred to as “Indians” or “Native Americans,” while in Canada they are usually known as “Aboriginal People,” “Native People” or “People of the First Nations.” Because this period of pre-history literally involves thousands of years, below we have created a time-line, beginning 9000 BCE, that will help you see some of the major developments at a glance.

9000-8000 BCE: During this millennium, the Huron people, originally known as the Wendat, settled into Southern Ontario along the Eramosa River near what is now Guelph. They were concentrated between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. Most of the land was still covered in glaciers and the Wendat hunted caribou to survive.

7000 BCE: Aboriginal tribes began settling the west coast of Canada and various cultures built themselves around the rich salmon fishing in the region. The Nuu'chah'nulth, or Nootka people of Vancouver Island began whaling.

6000 BCE: Various cultures were built around the vast store of buffalo by the Plains Indians in central Canada. These groups hunted buffalo by herding them off of cliffs. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Lethbridge, Alberta, is the most famous hunting grounds in this region of the country and was in use for 5,000 years.

5000 BCE: The oldest ceremonial burial site was discovered at L'Anse Amour on the coast of Labrador containing the remains of a 12-year-old boy. The child was buried face down in a very elaborate manner; red ochre had been sprinkled on the back of his head and in a circle around the body. Also found in the tomb were a decorative caribou antler pestle, a bone pendant, bird bones, a harpoon head, a bone whistle, and a walrus tusk. It is unknown what standing the boy had in the community to have been buried in such a way.

2000 BCE: The Inuit people arrived in what is now Canada by small boats, long after the land bridge had disappeared and settled in the Arctic regions.

800 BCE: As the glaciers receded and the weather warmed, the Huron people became farmers rather than hunters, cultivating corn which will not grow wild.

500 BCE-1000 AD: Natives had settled across most of Canada. Hundreds of tribes had developed, each with its own culture, customs, legends, and character. Some of the most well-known were the Huron, Inuit, Blackfoot, Cree and Iroquois.

Canada: The First Settlers and Fight for Control

The earliest contact with what is now Canada is thought to have been made by the Vikings in an expedition led by Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was blown off course en route from Iceland to Greenland around 985 AD. However, there are no records of this discovery save for Icelandic sagas; vague word-of-mouth accounts handed down over the generations.

The first European contact noted in Canadian history was made by the Italian explorer John Cabot sailing under the patronage of King Henry VII of England. In 1497, in a quest to find a trade route to the Orient, Cabot ended up somewhere on the eastern Canadian coast and claimed it for the King. This voyage, and one subsequent in 1498, gave England a claim by right of discovery to an indefinite amount of area of eastern North America; in fact, its later claims to Newfoundland, Cape Breton and neighboring regions were based partly on Cabot's exploits.

In the early 16 century, a Frenchman named Jacques Cartier also sailed on two expeditions to Canada, sailing into the St. Lawrence River in August of 1535.

On August 5, 1583, Humphrey Gilbert, armed with legal claim papers from Queen Elizabeth I, formally took possession of Newfoundland in St. John's harbor on behalf of England. But the French also started to make claims on Canadian territories. While their first attempts at settlement failed, in 1604 the fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Dugua Sieur de Monts of France, who led his first colonization expedition to an island located near the mouth of the St. Croix River. Among his lieutenants was a geographer named Samuel de Champlain, under whom the St. Croix settlement was moved to Port Royal (today's Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia).

It was France's most successful colony and the settlement came to be known as Acadia. However, the cancellation of de Guast's fur monopoly in 1607 brought the Port Royal settlement to a temporary end. Undiscouraged, Champlain was able to persuade de Guast to allow him to take some colonists and settle on the St. Lawrence, where in 1608 he would found France's first permanent colony in Canada at Quebec. It became the capital of New France.

While the English colonies were growing rapidly along the Atlantic coast, French fur traders and explorers were slowly extending ownership deep into the heart of North America. After settling the area around what is now the Hudson Bay in the early 17 century, the English would later go on to capture Quebec in 1629, although the region was later returned to the French in 1632 during a brief time of peace between the two nations.

Peace between France and England did not last long, however. The Seven Years War (1756-1763) in Europe pitted England against France in a bloody fight for control over North America and Canada particularly. In 1758, the British captured the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, and in 1759, the English General Wolfe captured the city of Quebec (Wolfe’s victory at Quebec ensured that Canada would become British rather than French). In 1763, the French were forced to surrender all their territories in Canada to Britain by the Treaty of Paris.

Canada: The Early Days of British Rule

A depiction of the Conference at Quebec in 1864After France was forced to give up its claim on North America, England, which had now added to their other Atlantic colonies, was faced with two pressing problems. There were now over 50,000 new French-speaking subjects in what had formerly been New France. Additionally, there were large tracts of wilderness in the Great Lakes area where the small garrisons of the British were gravely outnumbered by the native Indians.

Led by an intelligent and treacherous Ottawa chieftain named Pontiac, the Indians suddenly rose against their new English masters and began to overthrow these forts one by one; massacring the English soldiers that inhabited them, until fresh troops were rushed in and the uprising was finally subdued.

To avoid further conflict with the French, the English Parliament enacted the Quebec Act of 1774, allowing the French Canadians to practice their own religion—Roman Catholicism—and to keep French civil law alongside British criminal law. By 1775, Canada had a population of about 90,000.

During the American Civil War (1775-1783), the loyalty of what was once New France was tested. Within a year of the passing of the Quebec Act, the rebelling American colonies sent two armies north to capture the province. Sir Guy Carleton, the British governor of Canada, narrowly escaped capture when one of these armies, under Richard Montgomery, took Montreal.

Carleton reached Quebec in time to organize its small garrison against the forces of Benedict Arnold. Arnold began a siege of the fortress, in which he was soon joined by Montgomery. In the midwinter fighting that followed, Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded. When spring came, the attacking forces retreated. During the rest of the American Revolutionary War, there was no further fighting on Canadian soil.

After the American Revolution, thousands of British Loyalists from the newly-established United States of America, fled to Canada to begin their lives anew in Nova Scotia and in the unsettled lands above the St. Lawrence rapids and north of Lake Ontario. This massive wave of new settlers, known in Canada as the United Empire Loyalists, marked the first major wave of immigration by English-speaking settlers since the days of New France. Their arrival meant that both the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia and the inland colony of Quebec would need to be reorganized.

Initially, the unsettled forests to the west of the Bay of Fundy, once part of French Acadia, had been included in Nova Scotia. In 1784, however, this area was established as a separate colony known as New Brunswick. Cape Breton Island was simultaneously separated from Nova Scotia (a division that was ended in 1820). In all, some 35,000 Loyalist immigrants are believed to have settled in the Maritimes.

Meanwhile, the settlement of the more inaccessible lands north and west of Lake Ontario and along the north shore of the upper St. Lawrence proceeded somewhat more slowly, with only roughly 5,000 Loyalists settling in this area.

Canada: The 19 Century

During the American War of 1812 the Americans invaded Canada but the Canadians were able to turn them back. However, the successful defense of their newly formed country had not prevented the Canadians from seeing the cracks in their own form of government. There were many citizens, particularly the wealthy businessman and landowners, who believed that the colonists had sufficient powers of self-government through their elected assemblies. Others were upset, that the real power did not lie in the hands of the people through their elected representatives, but with the governor who was responsible only to the government in Britain.

One of the loudest accusers of the government's administration, especially when it came to land grants, was William Lyon Mackenzie, who eventually became Mayor of Toronto in 1834. In 1837, he led an unsuccessful uprising, during which he was killed. At about the same time, in Lower Canada, the French Canadians of Lower Canada also rebelled under the leadership of Louis Joseph Papineau; this revolt, too, was quickly put down.

The gravity of troubles in Canada caused deep concern in Great Britain, where memories of the American Revolution were still fresh. At the request of Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne in 1837, John George Lambton, earl of Durham, accepted appointment as governor in chief of British North America with special powers as lord high commissioner. Lambton arrived in Quebec in the spring of 1838, and though he ended his stay before the year was out, his Report on the Affairs of British North America is one of the most important documents in the history of the British Empire.

Durham recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be united under a single parliament, believing if the colonies were given as much freedom to govern themselves as the people of Great Britain, they would become more loyal instead of less so. He did not live to witness the action that was taken on his report, for within a year he became ill and died. In 1840, the Act of Union was passed, joining Upper and Lower Canada under a central government.

Canada eventually gained democratic government in 1867 when Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were federated as the Dominion of Canada. Canada then had a strong central government, which ruled from Ottawa, the new capital. The first prime minister of Canada was Sir John Macdonald.

Throughout the 19th century, the population of Canada grew rapidly, boosted by a massive wave of European immigration. Canada established its first democratic government in 1867, when Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were federated as the Dominion of Canada. Manitoba was made a province in 1870, and British Columbia joined the confederation in 1871. Alberta and Saskatchewan would later join in 1905.

The Canadian economy also expanded greatly during this time, aided by the spread of the country’s railway system. A transcontinental railroad, the Canadian Pacific, was completed in 1885, and vast areas of land were turned over to farming and manufacturing industries that quickly began to boom. Gold was discovered in the Klondike District of the Yukon in 1896, sparking a gold rush that would last for several years.

Canada: The 20 and 21 Century

A Canadian war tank, SourceIn the years before World War I, Canada faced one of its most pressing foreign policy issues as a naval competition increased between Germany and Britain. Great Britain naturally desired to receive military help from the colonies. The Canadian Prime Minister at the time, Wilfrid Laurier, found a compromise that satisfied neither the pro-British faction nor the French partisans. He founded the Canadian Navy in 1910 with the provision that in time of war it be placed under British command. This quickly led to accusations that Canadian soldiers would be drafted into the British Army if war came. As a result, Laurier was defeated in the next election of 1911.

The new Conservative government, headed by Robert Laird Borden, had the responsibility of rallying the nation to Britain's side in World War I. Had Canadians remained as divided as they were at the end of Laurier's term, this might have been a difficult thing to do. But Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium in 1914 forged a unity of Canadian sentiment and a demand for participation in the conflict.

Before the war ended in 1918, more than 619,000 officers and men had enlisted, including some 22,000 who had served in the British Royal Air Force. More than 60,000 Canadians were killed in action or died of wounds, a terribly heavy toll in relation to the country's population. Over 66 million shells were produced in Canadian factories. The gross national debt soared from 544 million dollars in 1914 to almost 2 1/2 billion dollars in 1919, most of the money being raised in Canada itself through public war loans.

Following the war, in the 1920s, Canada saw several prosperous years, but like the rest of the world the country suffered greatly during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Exports of timber, fish and grain dropped off sharply, and by 1933 unemployment had soared to a whopping 23%. The government introduced relief works, but economic hardship continued throughout the decade.

With the early 1940s came the start of the Second World War. Within three months an entire division of the new Canadian Active Service Force had been transported to the United Kingdom. These Canadians saw service in almost every theater of war. The Royal Canadian Navy was increased from fewer than a dozen vessels to more than 400. It served primarily as an antisubmarine and convoy force in the North Atlantic. Some of its units were deployed from time to time as far away as the Mediterranean and the Pacific. Canada lost 45,000 soldiers during World War II.

Following the war, the population of Canada grew rapidly, from 16 million in 1951 to 18 million in 1961. People came from all over Southern and Eastern Europe, and, in the 1960s, also from, Southern Asia.

The 1950s and 1960s saw the Canadian economy boom and Canada became a very affluent society. However, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, a recession hit Canada and unemployment rose to 11%. There was another recession in the early 1990s, yet Canada quickly recovered.

In the early part of the 21 century, Canada’s economy rebounded nicely, but like the rest of the world, the country is just now beginning to shake off the effects of the global recession that began in 2008. In 2012, the unemployment rate in Canada stood at 8.1 percent, but today that number has shrunk to 6.9 percent—the lowest rate the country has seen since before the 2008 recession.

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Why Canadian Education Systems are Popular Among Students?

Canada is a beautiful country occupying the northernmost region of the North American continent. The country, which consists of 10 distinct provinces and 3 territories, extends all the way from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. With nearly 10 million square kilometers of land space, Canada is the world’s second-largest country by total area, and its southern border, which it shares with the United States, is the longest continuous land border in the world.

Canada is a highly developed country, with an excellent system of education. Below we will take a closer look at that education system, and describe the various levels or stages that comprise it.

Canada and Education: Introduction

Education in Canada is a very high priority of the government. The country boasts a state-run system of public education, one that is provided, funded and administered by federal, provincial and local governments. Jurisdiction of the public education system, as well its curriculum, is overseen by each province. As a result, one can expect to see slight variations in the educational systems of each province (the type of programs offered, minimum and maximum age requirements, etc.), but the similarities in those systems far outweigh the differences.

Education across Canada is generally divided into four stages: pre-school or early childhood education; primary or elementary education; secondary education and post-secondary or tertiary education, which includes college and university programs and vocational/technical schooling.

Education is compulsory up to the age of 16 in every province in Canada, except for Ontario and New Brunswick, where the compulsory age is 18. Canada generally has 190 total school days in the academic year, typically starting in September (after Labor Day) and concluding near the end of June—usually the last Friday of the month, except in some cases in the Province of Quebec, when the last day of school occurs just before June 24, a holiday in the province.

In terms of educational attainment, about 90 percent of all Canadians possess at least a high school diploma, and one in seven individuals hold a university degree of some type. The ratio of high school graduates versus non-diploma holders is changing rapidly in the country, partly due to changes in the labor market that require people to have a high school diploma and, in many cases, a university degree.

In addition to public schools, there are also thousands of private schools in Canada, both secular and religious-based institutions. When Canada was first formed, all the provinces originally had education systems divided by religion, but most provinces have now abolished these “public-religious” systems. The provinces of Ontario and Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and certain cities in Saskatchewan are exceptions to this, as they still maintain publicly-funded separate district school boards (usually Catholic but occasionally Protestant). In Quebec, the Catholic/Protestant divide was replaced with a French/English one in 1998. Quebec students must now attend a French school up until the end of high school unless one of their parents previously attended an English-language school somewhere else in Canada. Likewise, access to French school in most of the other provinces is limited to children having at least one French-speaking parent, or a parent who is a Canadian citizen having received French-language primary instruction in Canada.

Most Canadian education systems continue up to grade 12 (age seventeen to eighteen). In Quebec, the typical high school term ends after Secondary V/Grade 11 (age sixteen to seventeen); following this, students who wish to pursue university education must attend college.

For each type of publicly-funded school, the province is divided into school districts or divisions. For each district or division, board members, known as “trustees,” are elected by voters within that specific district only. Normally, all publicly-funded schools are under the authority of their local school district board. In turn, the school boards typically follow a curriculum set up by the province in which the school district is located. Only Alberta allows public charter schools—schools which are independent of any district school board. Instead, these schools have their own board of trustees, which reports directly to the province.

Structure of Education in Canada

As mentioned above, Canada’s system of education has four general levels: pre-elementary, elementary, secondary and post-secondary education.

Pre-Elementary Education in Canada

Pre-elementary programs in Canada—educational programs offered to young children (4-5 years) prior to that student beginning elementary school at age six—are offered by public, private, and federal schools within the country, as well as schools for the visually and hearing impaired.

Most jurisdictions offer one year of public pre-elementary education (usually called kindergarten), with Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta offering additional years of free preschool. Parents living in jurisdictions that have offer but one free year of pre-primary education have the option of enrolling their children in a private program until those children reach the eligible age.

In most jurisdictions, kindergarten (the pre-elementary program in the year before Grade One) is offered to children who turn 5 years of age by a certain date in the school year, as specified by jurisdictional or provincial legislation. Attendance in these programs is optional in most jurisdictions, although it is mandatory in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The intensity of these programs varies; some jurisdictions offer full-day programs, some have half-day programs, and some offer both.

In the province of Quebec, one additional year of publicly-funded pre-elementary schooling is available to some 4-year old children who have disabilities or who are from low-income families. In Ontario, the provision of an additional year of pre-elementary for 4-year- olds is dependent on the choice of the local school board, and funding is provided by the Ministry of Education. In Ontario, all school boards offer this program for their students. In Manitoba, one additional year of pre-elementary programming is offered at the discretion of each school division, and two school divisions currently provide this program, which is not funded by the Department of Education. In Saskatchewan, two additional years of pre-elementary programming are funded in schools in communities where a significant portion of pre-school children are not ready to participate fully in the learning opportunities offered to kindergarten and Grade 1 students. These programs are not mandatory and are not universal. Alberta also offers two additional fully funded years of pre-elementary programming, targeted to students with disabilities or to those who are considered talented or gifted.

The curriculum offered in kindergarten and other pre-elementary programs is far from rigid. Students are introduced to the alphabet, pre-reading and mathematics skills, music, art, and play. All kindergarten and early child hood education programs in the country are designed to prepare students for success at the next level of education (primary school) by teaching them how to participate and act appropriately within the group setting and cooperate with both the instructor and the other children in the class.

Primary (Elementary) Education in Canada

Primary education in Canada is compulsory for all children, usually beginning at age 6 or 7 with Grade One. Students receive six years of primary education—Grade 1 through Grade 6—typically broken down in the following manner:

Grade 1 (ages 6–7)

Grade 2 (ages 7–8)

Grade 3 (ages 8–9)

Grade 4 (ages 9–10)

Grade 5 (ages 10–11)

Grade 6 (ages 11–12)

Students in the primary grades of education typically study under only one instructor for the entire school year and receive that instruction in a single classroom. Special education programs may also have one to four instructional aides present, depending on the type and severity of the students’ disabilities, to assist the teacher throughout the day.

The curriculum at the primary stage of education encompasses a number of subject areas, including mathematics, reading, language arts (usually English language, but French in Quebec), social studies, history, geography, science, music, art and physical education. Naturally, the difficulty of said curriculum increases somewhat with every passing grade, as students learn to master new skills.

Secondary Education in Canada

Secondary education in Canada consists of two distinct levels: intermediate or junior high school; and high school.

Intermediate education

Once students have successfully completed the final year of elementary or primary education, or Grade 6, they are promoted to intermediate or junior high school. Intermediate school is a two-year educational stage, broken down into the following two grades:

Grade 7 (ages 12–13)

Grade 8 (ages 13–14)

In Grade 7, at the age of 12 or 13, students are introduced to the process of attending different classrooms throughout the day and having different teachers for every class. These teachers are considered experts in the subject they teach and must obtain a single-subject teaching certificate indicating that expertise.

The basic goal of intermediate education is to prepare students to enter the next phase of secondary education, or high school. They are taught many of the same subjects in which they received instruction in primary school, although the difficulty increases substantially. Other subjects are also added to the curriculum in intermediate school, most notably foreign language instruction—French, Spanish, English (for Quebec students), etc.

High School Education

Once students successfully complete the 8 Grade, they are promoted once again, this time to high school—a four year program that breaks down in the following way:

Grade 9 (ages 14–15)

Grade 10 (ages 15–16)

Grade 11 (ages 16–17)

Grade 12 (ages 17–18)

In the Province of Ontario only, students can take advantage of a fifth year of high school, usually referred to as Grade 12+. By law, students must remain in high school until at least the age of 16, regardless of their grade. This rule applies to every province except for Ontario and New Brunswick, in which students must remain in school until age 18 or until they successfully complete high school and are awarded a diploma. Approximately 90 percent of students in Canada successfully complete high school and are awarded a diploma for their efforts.

Secondary education in Quebec continues to Grade 11 (Secondary V), and is typically followed by college, a two year pre-university (university for Quebecers is three years, except Engineering), or three year vocational program taken after high school.

The curriculum in all of Canada’s high schools is designed to prepare students for a college or university education and/or provide them with the skills to succeed vocationally once they graduate. Depending on the jurisdiction, a variety of programs —vocational (job- training) as well as academic—is offered at the high school level. Some jurisdictions even offer dual credit courses that simultaneously give students both high school and postsecondary credits.

Post-Secondary Education in Canada

College and University

Once students successfully graduate from high school (Secondary V in Quebec) they are free to apply to the college or university of their choice. In Canada, the term college usually refers to a community college or a technical, applied arts, or applied science school. These schools are post-secondary institutions that grant vocational certificates, diplomas, and associate degrees. Many students use college as a way to prepare further for a university education, gaining transferrable credits that can be applied once they transfer. Other students use college to prepare for a trade or vocation, earning a diploma or certificate that would allow them to immediately pursue employment opportunities following the completion of the program.

A university in Canada is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is a corporation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The degree structure at Canadian universities is very similar to that of the United States:

·Bachelor’s Degree. A Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate degree that typically takes three, four or five years to complete (depending on the province and class availability) for full-time students.

·Master’s Degree. A Master of Arts or Master of Science is known as a graduate degree, one that typically takes two years to complete.

·PhD. The Doctorate or PhD degree is a specialized post-graduate degree that can take anywhere from 3-6 years to complete.

University students can also pursue any number of advanced specialized degrees in fields such as Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, and the Law.

All college and university education in Canada is the responsibility of the individual provinces and territories. Provincial governments provide the majority of funding to their public post-secondary institutions, with the remainder of funding coming from tuition fees, the federal government, and research grants. Nearly all post-secondary institutions in Canada have the authority to grant academic credentials (i.e., diplomas or degrees). Generally speaking, universities grant degrees (e.g., bachelor's, master's or doctorate degrees) while colleges, which typically offer vocationally-oriented programs, grant diplomas and certificates. However, some colleges offer applied arts degrees that lead to or are equivalent to degrees from a university.

Although the college and university system of Canada is very similar to that of the United States, unlike the U.S., Canada has no accreditation body that oversees its universities. Institutions of higher learning in Canada have degree-granting authority via an Act of Ministerial Consent from the Ministry of Education of the individual province.

In Quebec, post-secondary education begins with college, right after graduation from Grade 11 (or Secondary V). Students complete a two or three-year general program leading to university admission, or admittance into a vocational professional program that leads directly into the labor force. In the majority of cases, bachelor's degree programs in Quebec span three years instead of the usual four; however, in many cases, students attending a university in Quebec that did not graduate from college must complete an additional year of coursework.

Only one federally-funded university in Canada possesses degree-granting power: The Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). The RMC is the military academy of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Vocational Schools and Apprenticeships

In addition to community colleges, which offer some vocational training, students can also learn a vocation or trade at one of the many private vocational and technical schools scattered throughout the country, or via an apprenticeship program.

In prior years, enrollment in a trade or vocational program, including any school or program geared towards preparation for employment in an occupation or trade, did not require a high school diploma. However, the requirements for these vocational programs have been rapidly evolving in recent years, and now an increasing number of programs, particularly in trades dealing with advanced technology and/or public safety, require students to graduate from secondary school prior to enrollment.

Apprenticeships in Canada allow students to learn the skills they need for a given trade by working hands-on in that environment under a qualified supervisor. Apprenticeship training involves a contract between an apprentice and an employer—registered with the province or jurisdiction—in which the employer provides the apprentice with training and experience for a trade. Programs such as these vary in length depending on the type of trade or program, ranging anywhere from two to five years. Registered apprenticeship programs combine real-world experience with classroom education. In most provinces, the classroom portion of the course is conducted during the apprenticeship training, although in Quebec, classroom instruction must be taken prior to beginning an apprenticeship program.

There are over 200 registered trades in Canada, each with specific standards and training requirements outlined by the provinces. In some of these trades, apprenticeship training and certification is compulsory to enter into and to practice the trade.

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