Polytechnic rocked by scandal
Construction electricians were found to have access to exams ahead of time
Saskatchewan Polytechnic announced a shocking revelation on July 4 that 22 construction electricians were implicated in a cheating scandal that had gone on at the trade school for three years.
The cheating involved current and former construction students, who had their certifications and apprenticeships suspended.
During a news conference held at a Regina hotel, the trade school’s provost and VP of Academic Dennis Johnson expressed “profound disappointment” at the widespread academic misconduct.
In addition to the students, an instructor at the school and a staff member with the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission (SATCC) were also implicated in the scandal. The cheating took place between 2015 and 2018.
The investigation, led by the SATCC and a third-party investigation firm, found the apprentices accessed materials they shouldn’t have during technical training, including level exams and Red Seal interprovincial certification exams.
The investigation began 18 months earlier when an anonymous tip was sent to Saskatchewan Polytechnic. The students had accessed course materials through the two staff members involved. Jeff Ritter, CEO of SATCC, said there was no evidence that the staff members charged the students money for accessing the materials. Ritter said he had no knowledge of what the motive was behind the instructor and staff member’s involvement in the cheating.
The construction electrician apprenticeship is a four-year term, with Polytechnic providing the technical training, and the SATCC overseeing the apprenticeship contract.
The majority of the 22 electricians involved had completed their schooling, and some were already working for both large and small businesses. One of those companies was Enbridge, which confirmed one of its employees had been sanctioned, and that it had started its own internal investigation.
Investigators found no evidence that unsafe work had been done by students who were working in the industry.
Students who took compromised exams were ordered to retake them, and those who did not write a compromised exam had to wait for their suspension period to end and then reapply to have their certification reinstated.
The SATCC made the decision to suspend the certifications of the students rather than cancel them based on legal advice. A list of all the students involved in the cheating was posted on the SATCC website. Once the suspensions are lifted, the organization said it planned to take the names down. As of Dec. 6, three names still remained on the website.
“A good number of them have … accepted responsibility for what they did. I think disappointment would be a fair categorization, but again it varies from individual to individual,” said Ritter.
Despite finding evidence of systemic cheating, John Lax with the Construction Association of Saskatchewan called the situation a “one-off.” Lax, the director of advocacy and communications, said those who choose to cheat would not get far in the industry if they were not genuinely competent or capable.
In November, a representative of Saskatchewan Polytechnic said no additional students or staff had been implicated in the scandal.