Outside the tool box: trades programs see drop in enrolment

Fewer people are applying and being accepted for tradesprograms at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest independent career college, although an educatorsays the long-range market for new hires is not necessarily bleak.

JamesLoder,the director of admissions for Academy Canada, sayspeople need to look farahead when deciding on a career path.

"Think three, four, five, six, seven years down the road and what their needs are going to be," Loder, who is also vice-president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Career Colleges,told the St. John's Morning Show.

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"One of the problemsI think that we're experiencing in the province right nowis people are thinking in a very short-term bubble, thinking what [are]the circumstances today," Loder said.

The softening economy has affected enrolment at Academy Canada'sthree campuses.

"The trades programs I'd say we're down around 25 or 30 per cent in terms of the number of people we've been accepting," he said.

Think three, four, five, six, seven years down the road and what their needs are going to be.- JamesLoder,director of admissions for Academy Canada

"What we've done over the last 12 months or so is that we've actually reduced the number of students we're accepting into our trades programs, just to adjust to that labour market,"Lodersaid.

However, he noted that enrolment "in non-trades has increased over the last year fairly significantly."

The college takes supply and demand in job markets into consideration with the programs it offers.

"It's nothing at all unusual to changing it to the needs of the labour market." Loder said.

College admissions are changing focus

"Because we have the luxury of offering a multiplicity of programs,we can change our energies and our focus from one area to another. That's a pretty regular thing for uswe've done that for 30 years."

Although there had been reliable work in the trades, graduates may not find work in Newfoundland and Labrador'sjob market.

"They're tending to need to go, not just within the province. They need to go across the country to find those first opportunities and start building up their apprenticeships," he said.

While there's a flood in the market of people trained in the trades,the college's non-trade graduates are experiencing success in their fields, he said.

"People are getting better at doing their homework and doing their research and coming in and talking about the things that they're interested in and we adjust ourselves accordingly," Loder said.