College Diploma - Recreation Therapy

This two year Ontario College Diploma trains therapeutic recreation practitioners: human anatomy and health conditions, therapeutic recreation process and assessment, program planning and facilitation, group leadership, and documentation standards used across health and long term care settings.

A field placement sits inside the two year structure per the export. Placements typically sit in long term care homes, hospitals, mental health services or community agencies, and they are where students build both competence and the local employer relationships that lead to work.

Confederation publishes CIP code 51.2309 for this program as PGWP aligned.2309, and the two year length supports a Post Graduation Work Permit of up to three years, subject to IRCC assessment. Demand in seniors care across Northwestern Ontario is durable and demographic rather than cyclical.

The export lists Grade 12 / High School with 50 percent for entry, plus English at IELTS 6 overall and no band below 5.5, recorded against Ontario college program code 0108.0 overall and no band below 5.5. Recorded tuition is CAD 18,453 for the year. Placement settings require police record checks including vulnerable sector screening, plus immunisation records.

Demographics make this a quietly reliable choice. Northwestern Ontario has an ageing population and a long term care sector that struggles to recruit, which means recreation therapy graduates in Thunder Bay face a genuinely open local market rather than the saturation seen in larger cities. Placement settings typically become employers. Applicants should be prepared for vulnerable sector police checks and immunisation requirements, both of which take time to arrange from overseas and should be started well before arrival. The export records September starts with a 26 July 2026 deadline.