One of the winning strategies used by Ontario Colleges in Canada to ensure currency and relevancy of programs also contributes to fostering civic engagement by connecting education to community needs, infusing real-world relevance, and advocating for active participation in societal matters. Program Advisory Committees (PACs) are mandatory for every program of study offered at a public college. These committees play a crucial role in informing the college program developers, faculty, deans, administrators, students, and any other participant of valuable insights and current trends in their respective fields. 

PAC are not only precious subject matter experts; as they often live and work in the same community, they bring a wealth of information on relevant societal needs and/or actualities that would otherwise go unnoticed.  

This active workshop will model best practices for engaging with PAC members to fully benefit from their expertise and knowledge as well as provide a forum to share best practices.

Sylvie is the Manager of Quality Assurance for the Ontario College Quality Assurance Service (OCQAS). She works with the Executive Director to ensure ongoing consistency of the OCQAS processes with international best practices in quality assurance for and within Ontario’s Colleges. 

Sylvie has taught at every age point, form pre-school, to post-secondary and even for the Canadian Armed Forces. Prior to joining OCQAS, Sylvie worked at Cambrian College where she established and actioned a college level audit process to review third-party educational institutions (for international students). More recently, she has co-developed and co-led a successful pilot process for auditing international standards of education in the Ontario college system. She also considers herself a vocational learning outcomes geek (and received a t-shirt to prove it) and is always happy to chat about learning outcomes. Sylvie studied in psychology and linguistics and holds an M.Ed. Degree from Nipissing University.