‘Frustration and anger’ over pause of unique program at NAIT: student

NAIT's captioning and court reporting program, which is the only one of its kind in the country, could be closed by the school.

Some current and former NAIT students are expressing frustration and concern after the school announced it would pause, review and potentially cut 18 programs, including a one offered nowhere else in Canada.

Tara Teves is a recent graduate of the captioning and court reporting program.

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The program teaches students to use an electronic shorthand machine, also known as a stenograph to write 225 words per minute or higher (average typing speeds are around 40 to 60 words per minute) in places like courtrooms.

It’s also the only accredited program of its kind in Canada, according to Teves

“We transcribe your evidence and we want to make sure that’s correct,” Teves said. “A wrong date, a wrong time, a wrong address, that could mean the world of a difference when it’s sending you to jail for life.”

There’s concern that artificial intelligence (AI) might begin to take over the role of a stenographer, but Teves said AI doesn’t have the human touch, ethics and situational understanding that a person does.

A first-year student in the program, Rhekia Fahssi, said she was shocked when she heard about the program pause.

“That shock has maybe turned to fear and definitely some frustration and anger over the situation,” Fahssi added. “I’m not classified to do the work I set out to do, and if the program is paused or shelved permanently, I have zero opportunity to pursue the career I’ve already invested my time, my emotions, my finances in.”

• NAIT puts 18 programs on hold

In a statement Thursday, NAIT said students currently enrolled in paused programs would be able to finish them.

Fahssi said that doesn’t apply to her program.

“Anyone who was enrolled for the year two diploma, which was supposed to start in the fall semester, those are paused. There is not a program for them,” she added.

“It feels very short-sighted for NAIT to have put a pause on this program, seemingly without having had any full conversations with folks who work within the industry, faculty, students.”

NAIT said the programs being reviewed have high costs and low enrolment. For the captioning and court reporting program, Teves believes the low enrolment is, in part, because the program and the jobs available to graduates aren’t advertised better.

“If they put up billboards like they do for the trades that are in Alberta, I think we’d be getting so much more involvement from everyone if you hear you could be making $70,000 off the bat, upon graduation (potentially) even more – you could go up to six figures,” Teves added.

“You could travel to transcribe for the United Nations. You could do the Olympics, this is such a cool job that’s not well known enough.”

She said it’s also a job in high-demand due to how specialized the work is.

“You’ll be hired right upon graduation,” Teves said. “Nowadays, it’s hard to find jobs. Not in this program, not in this occupation. We’re always looking for people.”

NAIT’s reviews of the affected programs are expected to take a few months.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa