ESTEVAN - The Southeast College offered Estevan students a look into their potential future.
A joint open house was held April 26 at the Estevan Comprehensive School with a number of colleges and universities coming from all across Saskatchewan and some from Alberta. Canadian Armed Forces Naval Reserves and RCMP also joined the event to promote their education and career opportunities.
Sheena Onrait, the manager of marketing and communications with the college, said that even though they had to move from their Estevan campus over to ECS due to power outages, the event went "remarkably well."
"We didn't really have that preconceived idea of how many people would be able to attend. But I think the little complication of us not having power at the Southeast College, and the Estevan Comprehensive School graciously putting us into the cafeteria to be able to hold the event, definitely helped with getting the comprehensive school students down and talking about post-secondary and career options after they finish high school," Onrait said.
Many ECS students used the opportunity to stop by the cafeteria and look into their potential options during breaks and at the end of the day. Some parents with younger kids also came over to find some education ideas towards the end of the day. Onrait said that the earlier students know what they want to do, the better, as it helps them to get in shape and have the best chances of getting into a preferred post-secondary institution.
"It's always a great thing to have people come in, start talking about post-secondary options at that young age, to know what kind of classes they need to take in high school to be able to gain entry to those post-secondary programs," Onrait explained.
Before the pandemic, SE College partook in different career fairs that run through post-secondary association, travelling from high school to high school in the region and outside it. In the last couple of years, there weren't any big events, which left a large layer of students less informed about their opportunities.
The SE College was going to host an open house at their location anyway, but decided to open it up to other post-secondary partners to create a bigger, more cohesive atmosphere and offer different options for local students to explore.
While students had about 15 options to look into that day, SE College's programs were also pretty popular among those who attended the open house.
"We had our hairstylist instructor … down with one of her students from this year. It's always nice when you have a visual representation of what students could be doing. [And we saw] interest in our hairstylist program, which is located at our Weyburn campus.
"And then, of course, our programs here in Estevan are always high on the interest list with local students, so our welding, our industrial mechanic and our heavy equipment and public transport program [saw a lot of interest]," Onrait said.
All in all, the college was pleased with the event and the attendance by both students and other institutions.
Onrait also thanked the ECS for graciously accommodating their last-minute move.
