Education First

Post secondary education is very expensive in North America and unless you are fairly wealthy will be a worry for most parents. Obviously, not all kids go onto University or College but if they do and you havent planned for it you could find yourself with a large financial burden. This would probably happen just when most families are looking at finally having some financial security

A Registered Education Savings Plan – RESP – is vital for your financial health if you have kids who you feel may want to go into post secondary education. An RESP is government sponsored (Registered with Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) and is allowed to grow tax free. Money paid from the plan at maturity may be taxed as income for the student.

The plans are administered by private companiespersons (Promoter) who will collect contributions and invest them accordingly. Up to 4,000 per beneficiary (student) can be contributed per calendar year, with a lifetime limit of 42,000 without any tax implications. Each student may have more than one plan but the limit is strictly per student.

The most important aspect of the RESP’s is that the Government will add 20% to the first 2,000 per calendar year (400) up to and including the year of the students 17th birthday. This is called the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) and any amounts paid in are not included in the annual limit for tax purposes.

The maximum a student can receive from CESG is 7200 over the lifetime of the plan. Any amount of CESG not claimed each year will accumulate as up to 800 can be paid if not previously claimed. If the RESP is not eventually used for educational purposes any CESG payments will have to be repaid to the government.

To apply, the student must be resident in Canada and have a Social Insurance Number (SIN) which must be provided to the promoter at the plan inception. Also, the individual making the contributions will be required to provide their SIN.

Types of RESP Plans

There are 3 main types of Plan:

Non-Family – There can be only one beneficiary but anyone (grandparentsgodparents etc.) can make the contributions whenever they want for however much they want to pay.

Family – There can be one or more beneficiary’s as long as they are blood relatives or adopted by the persons making the contributions. There are no restrictions on when and how much is paid in (apart from the tax implications of over subscribing).

Group – These plans are normally offered by foundations who set how much is paid in and when. Each age group will have a particular plan and all members will take a share. There are some fairly complicated rules attached and should be thoroughly researched with the plan providers before committing.

RESP Termination

At terminationmaturity, there are several options:

1. The intended student does not go into post secondary education. The contributions are returned tax free to the person who made them. The CESG is repaid to the government. Any income generated by the plan will be subject to taxation.

2. The student enrolls in a qualified program at a post secondary educational institution and completes the full program. Initially, 5000 can be paid from the plan, then after 13 weeks there is no limit to the amount paid as long as the student remains in the program. These payments are called Educational Assistance Payments (EAP’s). The student cannot be receiving EI (employment Insurance) or the program must not be part of the students employment (an apprenticeship for example).

3. The proceeds can be transferred to another RESP.

4. The proceeds can be paid to a designated educational institution.

More, detailed information can be found at http:www.onestopimmigration-canada.comRESP.html

Pressure, pressure, pressure. Students in all grades can be under an enormous amount of pressure to succeed while in school. Kindergartners must learn to read, add, and subtract before they finish their first year of school. In some places, students must pass certain state tests in order to be promoted to the next grade level. More and more emphasis is being placed on the importance of a rigorous academic program for middle- and high-school students, with the end result of attending a college or university. Is all this necessary? Well, legislators, the president, and local district officials believe so. Many parents also agree that kids need to graduate from high school ready to go on to college. Leaders of Pittsburgh Public Schools and of Pittsburgh itself plan to institute a new plan to motivate even more students to seek out a college education.

The Pittsburgh Schools have issued what it calls “The Pittsburgh Promise,” pledging that starting in 2008, all graduates who meet certain Pittsburgh Schools standards will have the means of getting post-secondary education. Wow! What a great idea! There are most likely some Pittsburgh Schools students who dont even dream of going to college, simply because their families cant afford it. Imagine, if you will, a Pittsburgh Schools family of blue-collar workers who have not had any of its members attend college. It is their dream for their children to go to college and have a better life; if this new program is indeed successful, this dream will most likely become a reality!

The Pittsburgh Schools district and the city hope to raise 5 million to 7 million a year to make college or other post-secondary education affordable. To access the money, Pittsburgh Schools students will have to attend one of the Pittsburgh Schools, do their work, stay out of trouble, and graduate. Its truly admirable to see that the city leaders, community leaders and the Pittsburgh Schools leaders recognize the difficulties that lay in the path of some of these students to actually attend college.

More and more, even some blue-collar jobs are requiring a minimum of a 2-year degree. Firefighters, carpenters, even cosmetologists can attend a community college where they receive the training their prospective employers are looking for. The students of Pittsburgh Schools who are on the vocational path will now have the opportunity to go to college, no matter what their familys financial situation might be. What a wonderful graduation gift Pittsburgh Schools students could receive upon leaving high school! Since society and the government are forever clamoring about how far behind our students are as compared to other students around the world, kudos to Pittsburgh Schools and the city of Pittsburgh for doing their part to get more kids in college.

Nowadays, it is impossible to get a job without a post secondary degree. The reason being that everyone has a degree so employers view having a post secondary degree as the new bare minimum. A degree in higher education should therefore be your top priority after you graduate from highschool. Also, if you think the program of your choice doesn’t have an online equivalent, think again – there are over 1,500 different types of online degrees you can choose from.

1. Associate Degrees

The lowest form of post secondary education is the associate degree. While you will be able to get a good paying job with such a degree you won’t necessarily be able to advance beyond that position into a position of more authority. For example, an associate degree in nursing might get you the night shift as a nurse, but not the lead nurse or hospital coordinator. This is equivalent to a two year program.

2. Bachelor’s Degrees

As an undergraduate you will complete a major that lasts three or four years in study. The most common Bachelors that are awarded are in the arts and sciences.

3. PHD Masters Degree

A doctorate is the highest level of education and places you at the same level of knowledge and competancy as an instructor. With minimal additional training you would be qualified to teach the subject to students of your own.

4. About E-Learning

E-learning is an all-encompassing term generally used to refer to computer-enhanced learning, although it is often extended to include the use of mobile technologies such as PDAs and MP3 players. It may include the use of web-based teaching materials and hypermedia in general, multimedia CD-ROMs or web sites, discussion boards, collaborative software, e-mail, blogs, wikis, computer aided assessment, educational animation, simulations, games, learning management software, electronic voting systems and more, with possibly a combination of different methods being used.

Along with the terms learning technology and Educational Technology, the term is generally used to refer to the use of technology in learning in a much broader sense than the computer-based training or Computer Aided Instruction of the 1980s. It is also broader than the terms Online Learning or Online Education which generally refer to purely web-based learning. In cases where mobile technologies are used, the term M-learning has become more common.