What is the Vantage Scholarship Program?

Employee benefits are an integral part of an organization’s overall compensation package. Offering the right benefits to employees can help foster morale, increase productivity, decrease turnover and help a company remain competitive in a tight job market. In order to maximize your ROI (return on investment), it is important to understand what employees need today and align your benefit plans accordingly. The Vantage Scholarship Program is an employee group benefits program designed to assist with paying for the education costs of the employee’s children. The demand for these post-secondary academic scholarships is increasing as more and more employee children are reaching university age and choosing post-secondary education as a way to further advance their careers. Meanwhile, the cost of post-secondary education continues to increase annually. In order to pay for these increased expenses, many parents and students turn to borrowing from the various lending institutions. It is now reported that the average Canadian student debt is now hovering at approximately $27,000.

Who is Eligible to Enroll in Our Scholarship Program?

Any organization that has employees who have a dependent child. The eligible student must have a Canadian Social Insurance Number.

What Types of Tuition Expenses are Eligible?

There are no restrictions on individual education course selection. The program must be a minimum of two years in length and at the diploma and or undergraduate degree level at an accredited Canadian or U.S. university or community college.

What are the Benefits for the Employees?

Many Canadian organizations face numerous restrictions that prevent them from offering scholarship programs to their employees and their dependents. Our program allows companies the ability to further attract compensate and retain their valued employees. Annual employee benefit coverages are easy to administer and can be factored into the total compensation package.

• Post-secondary tuition costs continue to rise and employees often feel the financial pressures that come when their children apply for student loans. Our Scholarship Program will help offset some of the large student loan debt that typically accumulates each year.
• Scholarship awards are not a taxable benefit to the employee because the awards are provided directly to the student. Typically he or she will also be in a much lower tax bracket than the company employee.
• Scholarship programs demonstrate the importance placed on post-secondary education.
• These types of employee flexible programs demonstrate that employers are more aware of what matters most to their employees and their families.
• These awards may help reduce the need for students to have to work part-time while attending school.
• These flexible compensation programs are innovative and responsive to changing employee needs.

Who Provides the Scholarship Program Registration and Administration?

Large organizations, professional corporations, and small business owners use our Scholarship Programs to provide benefits to both employees and their dependents in a tax effective manner. While providing these flexible benefits, this program also allows the employer the full ability to utilize these as tax-deductible business expenses. As a third-party plan administrator, we are under special contract to many large and small organizations across Canada to oversee and manage their Scholarship Programs. As part of this process, we adjudicate all registration applications to ensure full compliance with the Canada Revenue Agencies guidelines. We also ensure the program is maintained as required by the company’s own internal policies and procedures.