Stay Away from the Health Informatics Program (T419)
If you are expecting strong technical training, meaningful hands-on health informatics experience, or a reliable co-op pathway, stay away!!
This is for the Health Informatics program (T419, formerly T402) at George Brown Polytechnic (formerly George Brown College) in the Casa Loma campus.
I just saw this other post about the program last month that does a good job describing their experience with GBC's Health Informatics Graduate Certificate Program:
I experienced basically the same things described in that post. Their post focuses more on details about the poor learning experience. I just wanted to add on with a few takeaways about the value of this program as I am almost done with the program soon.
The value of this program
I will admit that it is an opportunity to network and to build soft skills working with different people in teams (it's an expensive opportunity, especially for international students). There are a few opportunities to speak with professionals from the healthcare sector during their guest presentations.
However, I would strongly discourage people with a very different background or people with larger technical backgrounds from taking this program. The time and money spent here can be spent elsewhere doing something more productive related to your profession or career.
For people with a healthcare interest or background, this should primarily only serve as an opportunity to network through the very limited opportunities with guest speakers and potentially other classmates. Otherwise, the curriculum and in-class learning opportunities do not live up to paying a 1-year postsecondary tuition of several thousands of dollars. There is little to no practical unique hands-on learning experience in this program.
Do not expect many students to get a co-op position. Only a handful of students in our cohort were successful, primarily coordinated through a few instructors out of a dozen. And also keep low expectations for the WIP (Work Integrated Project, for students with no co-op), as it is another self-initiated project that anyone could do outside of this program for 2-3 months. There is no unique hands-on opportunity here worth paying thousands of dollars for.
Not only for healthcare individuals, but there are plenty of networking events and conferences throughout the year in the Toronto area for anyone to participate in related to this field. You do not need to take this program to network.
You have to put in the effort to network either way, taking this program or not.
Too long, didn't read
This is basically a Business Analysis program for healthcare.
TLDR: Keep low expectations. Or stay away!! The program offers limited networking and some 'teamwork', but little to no unique hands-on learning for the cost. Co-op opportunities are very limited, and you're probably better off building skills and networking outside the program.