Enrolment on the rise with fire and fashion

By Y Murad Erzinclioglu

Students learning about high fashion and saving lives are helping to increase enrolment at St. Clair College.

In September the college introduced two new programs – fashion design technician and pre-service firefighter education and training. Both the fashion design and firefighting programs enrolled 50 students each, contributing to the college’s highest enrollment to date.

Robert Chittim is chair of the pre-service firefighter education and training program. He said it was a long road to making the program available for students. The college planned to launch the program last fall but was put on hold waiting for curriculum approval from the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs. Chittim has been at work promoting the new program to the community.

“Getting visibility in the public is important,” said Chittim. “We did an open house at Tecumseh fire house 2 and had about half of our students there. Next week is Fire Prevention Week across Ontario and our students will be out with the local fire services, going with fire prevention officers to schools, fire houses and malls, people will start seeing our students out there.”

Windsor fire chief Bruce Montone said there is great value in the pre-firefighting program not just for students but also for the community and fire services.

“The program provides the opportunity for anyone to learn the specific basic requirements in order to take on the occupation of firefighting,” said Montone. “From a recruitment perspective, it provides us the opportunity to bring people into the organization that already have some basic knowledge and skills. That can reduce the amount of time it takes us to prepare them before they move into an active role.”

Over the past decade enrollment at the college has been steadily increasing. In 2002 the college had 5,601 students and it now provides education opportunities for more than 8,400 – an increase of 49 per cent in 11 years.

With three out of every 10 students enrolled in a health science program, St. Clair College has become the number one post secondary educator of health science students in the province. The college launched three new programs in 2011 to support the burgeoning health science department including cardiovascular technology, respiratory therapy and ultrasound programs.

Ann Hetherington is director of marketing and student recruitment at St. Clair College. She said the health science programs are not the only areas that have seen recent increases.

“In the past year or so we have also seen a rebound in our skilled trades programs as industry has come back out of the recession. Programs like electrical techniques and other skilled trades are very popular as career paths,” said Hetherington. “The School of Media Art & Design has also seen an increase in applications this year as compared to last year, thanks to a couple of new programs like fashion design and event management.”

Hetherington said she believes keeping the college growing requires a multi-pronged approach.

“It’s not just about marketing any number of programs, it’s really about the overall image and name reputation for excellence in education,” Hetherington said. “When those pieces are in place with respect to all of our programs, it makes it that much easier to go out into the marketplace and promote the college as a whole.”

However, associate registrar Ryan Peebles said program development and the overall image of the college are not the only factors that have contributed to the recent growth.

“We do strive here to have an upward trend, to try to always increase our application base as well as our first year student base,” said Peebles. “We did notice a huge increase back in 2008, that’s where Second Career came in to play when the government stepped in and started to offer second career help to students who were on layoff or looking to regenerate a new career for themselves.”

With even more programs and campus buildings springing up in the next two years, St. Clair College expects its growth to continue. More information about St. Clair College and all of their programs can be found at www.stclaircollege.ca.