In June 2008 the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT) approved a new policy to publish in the BC Transfer Guide block transfer agreements (BTAs) between BC Transfer System member institutions and private post-secondary institutions accredited by the Private Career Training Institutions Agency (PCTIA). This new policy was directed at facilitating cooperation between the public and private sectors and at improving transfer opportunities for private college students. It also provided an informal way of measuring the volume of private to public student mobility and to see if what was suspected was true: that some private/public block transfer or informal transfer agreements were already in place but just not widely known. In passing this new policy, the Council's intent was not to force institutions into agreements but rather to record agreements already in place and to encourage cooperation in forging new ones. The BCCAT remains committed to its obligation to facilitate private/public cooperation by providing the BTA policy and process framework and encouraging institutions to use it. This paper explains BTAs and explores the benefits of using them to highlight their potential as versatile and efficient articulation tools. It also briefly examines the current evidence for student mobility from accredited private career training colleges to public institutions.
