Canadian Captioning School Opens

Editor: I don't remember the last time I saw an announcement about a new captioning school in the US. It's good to see that our northern neighbors are working to ensure a good supply of skilled captioners. Here's the press release.

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The Canadian Centre for Verbatim Studies (CCVS) opens its doors for the first time on January 7th, 2008, putting a solid new career option right at Canadians' fingertips.

Only the third school of its kind in the country - and the only one in Eastern Canada serving English-speaking Canadians - CCVS is a Ministry-approved new learning institution for Canadians interested in careers as real-time court reporters and broadcast captioning reporters. CCVS is the only private institution in Canada solely dedicated to the training of real-time court reporting.

"With less than 100 real-time reporters currently working in this country," says court reporting veteran and CCVS founder Kimberley Stewart, "Canada is experiencing a serious shortage of people with this skillset." Stewart says the average age of today's court reporter is 50 years, which means the industry will need qualified people just as soon as they can be trained.

While the average typing speed is between 50-60 words per minute (WPM), real-time court reporters and broadcast captioners are trained to type as fast as 225 WPM with 98% accuracy. "It's a highly developed skill that takes a lot of training," Stewart adds, "but it's a career that can take you around the world working in high-profile courtrooms, and the salary prospects are comparable to working on Bay St."

Forbes recently added court reporting to its list of surprising six-figure jobs. Real-time reporters can earn as much as $200,000 per year working in courtroom settings. Closed captioning services for television broadcasts, which employ the same skills, can pay reporters up to $200 an hour and give them the flexibility to work from home, Stewart says. "With an aging Canadian population, the demand for closed captioning services is going nowhere but up. Many of these services are mandated in the U.S., and Canada likely to follow suit shortly."

CCVS classes, both full- and part-time, commence in January, 2008. Space is being limited to less than 46 students in each program to ensure solid student-teacher ratios.