About Us

About Contact North

All Contact North services are FREE and offered in English and French.

Contact North helps people living in Ontario, especially those in small, rural, northern, and remote areas, access the online education and training they need to get or retain a job, earn a promotion, or advance their career without having to leave their communities.

We partner with Ontario’s public colleges, universities, Indigenous Institutes, district school boards, Get SET (Skills, Education and Training) providers, and non-profit, charitable or government organizations that deliver education and training activities.

To accomplish this, we:

Provide direct, one-on-one, local support to help people living in Ontario find and register in online programs and courses at the basic skills, secondary and post-secondary levels that meet their needs and interests. Support services to help learners succeed in their online education or training include:
- - Information on online programs and courses from Ontario’s colleges, universities, Indigenous institutes and other education and training providers
  - Help to register
  - Information on financial aid
  - Laptop Loaner Service
  - Technical support
  - Use of web conferencing platforms
  - e-Channel.ca
Help Ontario education and training providers recruit students for their online programs and courses, provide technology platforms to deliver their programs and courses, and share resources and best practices for their faculty and instructors who teach online.

Develop and test new technologies that support education and training and share them with students, faculty, instructors, and other teaching and training professionals in Ontario, across Canada, and around the world.

Annual results

- - Fulfills 650,000+ service requests
  - Helps 30,000+ online learners across Ontario
  - Generates 21,000+ registrations in online programs and courses
  - Reaches out to residents in 1,600+ Ontario communities, especially in small, rural, northern and remote areas
  - Operates 200+ local access points across Ontario

Corporate information

- - Established by the Government of Ontario in 1986
  - Incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation headquartered in Thunder Bay
  - Governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of representatives from Ontario’s public colleges, universities, district school boards, Indigenous communities and Francophone communities, as well as members of the public
  - Receives annual funding from the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security continuously since 1986; the current amount is $10 million