New programs offered at St. Clair College

By Sarah Ryrie

St. Clair College will be introducing two new programs at the Windsor campus this year.

As technology and times change, the employment industry is requiring new and different forms of education for future employees to fulfill the requirements of high-demand jobs. St. Clair College has introduced several new programs in the last few years. Some of the programs recently added to the Windsor campus include cardiovascular technology, community and justice services, and paralegal among others. Starting this September, event management and fashion design technician will be introduced at the main campus.

Students interested in the fashion industry have moved from home to attend school. Gabriella Blair, former George Brown College fashion techniques and design program student will be transferring to St. Clair College’s fashion design technician program this fall.

“It’s really expensive to live in Toronto, average rent is around $1,000 a month,” said Blair.

She said she looks forward to living in a rent-free home with her parents for the next two years while in school.

“I am excited to get back to school and I think that this program could bring many great opportunities to the Windsor area,” Blair said.

The average time frame to introduce a new program into the college is two years. A program must be approved by the board of governors which generally happens in March. Afterwards it goes to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities so it can be marketed around the first of May that year so it can be ready and well-advertised for the following year.

St. Clair has a full-time recruiting team made up of part-time students as well as full-time employees. They travel within the province spending the majority of their time in south western and northern Ontario. The college also advertises through subways, fairs and billboards.

“More and more people are saying what [program] in the end can I take to get a job,” said St. Clair president John Strasser.

Strasser said one of the largest responses to a new program offered at St. Clair is Chatham’s power line technician program.

“The people across this province that are dealing with energy do not have enough power line technicians,” Strasser said. “So we put the program in and we were projecting a class size for the coming year of 30, we will be at least double that.”

Although marketing a new program starts over a year in advance, marketing can still be difficult.

“A lot of the newer programs take more than a year to get going,” said Strasser.