The North beckons.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: SAULT STE. MARIE - StayNorth works with six colleges to help students in carrier guidance

In 2014, Northern Ontario's six colleges banded together to draw southern Ontario students north to study. Now, that program has been expanded to help graduates find jobs once they've finished school.

"Once the students have been trained in Northern Ontario, the goal is then to try and keep them in Northern Ontario with full-time positions, and that's where StayNorth came into being," said Alex Rogerson, employment liaison officer for StayNorth.

The six colleges launched the three-year Study North recruitment program a year and a half ago as an antidote to shifting demographics which were resulting in lower enrolment at the Northern colleges.

The program targets students in southern Ontario who likely have to relocate to study in their program of choice. If they have to move anyway, the reasoning goes, they should consider the many assets Northern Ontario has to offer, such as small class sizes, the natural environment, and diverse work opportunities.

As an extension of Study North, StayNorth works with local organizations to match graduates with jobs.

Rather than focusing on singular opportunities, however, Rogerson said the initiative is taking a pan-Northern approach to helping students find work.

"The first goal would be to keep the students in the city that they're going to school in, but as we know, the students may want to move to different areas," she said. "So we're really looking at it from Northern Ontario as a whole."

Students register at the online database www.staynorth.ca and are matched with employers across Northern Ontario based on their personal location specifications and job...