Colleges benefit from Second Career: popular program has boosted enrolment.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: NEWS

The nearly two-year run of Ontario's Second Career program is proving to be a boon to community colleges in helping laid-off workers obtain job retraining.

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Northern College experienced a 38 per cent increase in enrolment this school year, with Second Career participants representing half of that growth.

"Since the program started (in 2008) we have the highest intake in all of Northern Ontario," said Lynn Berthiaume, Northern's registrar and manager of student services in Timmins. "Not bad for the smallest college in the system."

Their latest figures from November - based on student intake last September for the fall semester - indicated Second Career student numbered 344. It's the 14th highest in the provincial college system. "Northern College has had a huge intake this year with a large portion attributed to Second Career," said Berthiaume.

Second Career is an Employment Ontario program offered to laid-off workers. Students are referred based on a return to work action plan starting with an Employment Ontario assessment centre.

The hot programs for Second Career students are in business, law clerk, office administration, social service worker, nursing and personal support worker.

Classes are full and the heavy influx of students in certain programs meant hiring extra faculty. "But mostly the college has been able to accommodate everyone," said Berthiaume.

At Thunder Bay's Confederation College, forestry mill closures resulted in more mature students steadily trickling onto campus.

The program has delivered more than 200 mature students to add to Confederation's 4,000 full-time student population.

Don Vernosky, Confederation's executive director of innovation and skills development, said it's a diverse group entering a variety of programs from business accounting, to human resources, to the health sector such as practical nursing.

"That's the exciting side. Students have explored a range of career options."

Vernosky said it's been a combination of students upgrading and some looking to change careers entirely.

The college has provided space on campus for a Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP)...