For José Carlos Chávez, two years of plans in Vancouver began to unravel before he boarded the plane.
The Guadalajara photographer was due to start a Sales and Marketing diploma at ILAC International College in mid-October, after paying nearly CAD$14,000, securing an apartment and receiving study permit approval.
Instead, Chávez cancelled his journey and began trying to recover money committed to an education that would no longer be delivered.
“ILAC as an institution has still provided zero direct communication or official closure notification to my email,” he told The PIE News.
Chávez contacted KPMG, trustee for ILAC, and submitted proof of payment. He said the firm was assessing the company’s assets but did not currently expect a distribution to unsecured creditors.
His landlord waived the roughly CAD$1,800 lease-cancellation penalty, but Flair Airlines provided only around 30% of his flight costs as travel credit.
His travel is now on hold while he searches for another institution and navigates the requirements for changing his designated learning institution.
Private colleges have advertised “rescue packages”, but Chávez said those he found required fresh tuition after students had already lost money to the group.
ILAC Education Group included the language school International Language Academy of Canada and the career-focused ILAC International College.
Both ceased operations on September 18 and cancelled their programs with immediate effect. KPMG’s bankruptcy proceeding, however, specifically names International Language Academy of Canada Inc. as the bankrupt entity.
ILAC blamed mounting financial pressures over the previous three years and “significant regulatory changes affecting the sector”, saying it lacked the resources to continue operating.
The group promised direct information about programs, student services and next steps. However, every student and parent who spoke to The PIE said neither ILAC International College nor the wider group contacted them individually.
An outdated automated reply from an ILAC address was still telling correspondents that it was closed for an October public holiday and classes would resume the following day.
In Vancouver, Sebastián Cáceres discovered the news when a friend sent him ILAC’s Instagram post minutes after it appeared.
The Chilean-Bolivian student initially suspected the account had been hacked, before a former teacher confirmed the closure and said staff had learned during a Zoom meeting shortly before the announcement.
Cáceres had studied Sales and Marketing at ILAC International College’s Vancouver campus for around a year and expected to finish next March, having paid almost CAD$13,000.
“All the information that we got was for ourselves,” he said, describing students searching social media and approaching lawyers, teachers and even ChatGPT because calls and emails went unanswered.
The uncertainty has disrupted Cáceres’s job search, as he believes his work authorisation is affected and is awaiting clarity on whether he needs new documentation.
With accommodation alone costing at least CAD$1,500 a month, he fears that even one to three weeks without work could cause serious hardship.
“It’s like a huge, massive punch in the face,” he said, calling for urgent immigration guidance and additional time on students’ permits.
The fallout stretches beyond students already in Canada.
Clayton Jorge enrolled his son, Daniel, in ILAC International College’s Toronto-based Business Certificate: Introduction to Project Management course a month before the closure, for July 2027.
The family booked through a Brazilian education agency that had worked with ILAC for years, but Jorge said neither they nor the agency received any warning.
“We have never had any direct communication with ILAC, either before or after the incident,” he said, adding that even the agency was “caught completely by surprise”.
The agency is seeking a transfer, but a comparable July course may be unavailable during Brazil’s school holidays, potentially forcing the family to consider another city or country.
It’s not just for us, it’s for everybody. The teachers were doing their jobs all week, and in five minutes they lost everything
Sebastián Cáceres
Comments beneath ILAC’s social media announcements painted a picture of students already en route to Canada, families awaiting refunds and accommodation providers that had not received full payment.
Agents and former employees have also said they received no warning, with some alleging that the group accepted new enrolments shortly before it ceased operating.
Cáceres said the consequences extended beyond students: “It’s not just for us, it’s for everybody. The teachers were doing their jobs all week, and in five minutes they lost everything.”
The support available now depends on which ILAC institution and program a student attended.
Languages Canada said on September 22 that it had placed more than 430 of the 1,362 current in-person students displaced from ILAC’s language programs at other member schools, prioritising those finishing soonest.
Its Education Completion Assurance Plan provides comparable replacement language courses without additional tuition, but is not a refund or insurance scheme and excludes travel, accommodation, insurance and learning materials.
The organisation also contacted online language students and aimed to begin placing them in similar accredited programs by September 28.
However, the plan excludes ILAC International College’s career and co-op programs, leaving students such as Chávez and Cáceres dependent on provincial protection systems and government decisions.
British Columbia’s Private Training Institutions Regulatory Unit (PTIRU) said four ILAC Education Group institutions — ILAC, ILAC International College, Tamwood Careers and Tamwood Language Centres — surrendered their designation certificates on September 18.
ILAC acquired Tamwood in 2023. The regulator said eligible students in approved programs may claim against the province’s Student Tuition Protection Fund.
Ontario’s Training Completion Assurance Fund can generally provide eligible career-college students with training completion or a refund, but, as of September 24, no ILAC-specific guidance on eligibility, timelines or arrangements for incoming and co-op students had been published.
The group closed four days after EC English ceased teaching across 25 schools in seven countries. Languages Canada said all 471 students at EC’s Canadian locations were placed elsewhere within four days, but described ILAC as a more complex challenge.
The PIE contacted ILAC, KPMG and regulators in British Columbia and Ontario; KPMG sent an automated acknowledgement, while no substantive responses had been received by publication.
For Chávez, any solution must prevent students who paid ILAC International College from having to fund a second course elsewhere.
“At this stage my primary goal is seeking a clear, fair path from Canadian authorities that recognises affected students without forcing us to pay twice for an institutional bankruptcy we had no control over,” he said.
