Forestry, at Fleming College ( frost campus ), used to be renowned throughout the country as a top-notch education… regardless of the actual knowledge acquired ( which is minimal ), the name was good enough to get you into industry. Fast forward a few years to today, and most of the competent teachers have left 3 years ago in a mass exodus – and they have been replaced by career students who phone it in most of the time.

Another reason I have chosen to waste my money here is that this degree ( forest tech ) was supposed to include industry certification – and a lot of us were tricked into thinking these would be credentials which were honored throughout the province, and the country, instead of ‘in house’ certificates which are not even honored at some of the places to which Fleming dispatches students to maintain their employment statistics ( which they refuse to update from 2008 ).

The long and the short of it is that the statistics they publish are wildly misleading, as are the course descriptions – you’re most likely to get a 24 year old who is functionally illiterate, struggling to read material at you for their first time…

As a victim of this ‘education’, I would recommend strongly that a prospective student first check if this credential will be honored at companies which you would choose to work, and what extra credentials you will be compelled to pay for, and then have to re-take from their legitimate sources after you graduate… S and P 202 ( fire safety ), chainsaw operator’s card ( MOL ), ATV and snowmobile safety training ( MNR ), scaling certificate, etc…

Basically, you will have a degree which will allow you to sign off on other people’s work… and that’s it… it used to be a ‘perk’ which would allow someone to branch off and start their own company in the field of Forestry, and now it is the only positive advantage of having this credential… since the teachers are mostly incompetent, simply showing up will get you through most of this program…

Common first year is a total wash, and requires you to memorize a bunch of weeds and shrubs which grow in Windsor, Ontario… second semester, which is the first dedicated semester, will have you learning forest measurement from people who cannot be hired in industry, mapping from teenagers who don’t know how to make a lesson plan, and a bunch of other ‘filler’ courses.. . now, in semester 3, there is simply nothing to do that is related to forestry… we collect bugs, go on pointless field trips to wood lots and farms and such, observe fake logging operations, more field trips, and fake sawmill tours… and we are finishing off the semester being required to hose a ‘woodlot conference’, which is essentially compelled advertising to grade 8 students, to trick the next generation of students into thinking this program is real ( we can barely come up with 3 40 minute activities when drawing from ALL the activities available in the entire school )…

If they didn’t make field trip attendance mandatory, it would be possible for anyone mildly competent to spend a week reading up on some esoteric terminology, and then challenge all the exams in one day… the unfortunate thing is that at least 80% of these people are totally unfit to work in the forest industry at any time, without developing skills and knowledge which industry requires… the main goal of most in this program, at this time, is to get ‘a cushy job at the MNR where they don’t really have to do anything, and don’t have to go into the icky forest’ – another generation of coffee shop employees and provincial park janitors working at minimum wage…

AVOID AVOID AVOID unless you ABSOLUTELY REQUIRE IT… since it is stretched out over 2 years, the main expense will be living in Lindsay, which, in complicit collusion with the school administration, fixes rent prices to keep them artificially high… the dorm prices are extortionary, and you will be treated like a small child. The school will change the program at will, to save money, and so what you sign up for might not even exist when you graduate…

All in all, it has been a waste of time, since I am only now able to start entry level jobs for which I don’t need this credential… Soon, the reputation of this program will become known throughout the country, and the degree will be recognized as worthless by industry…