Maritime schools face recruiting challenges

By Ryan Ross

Increasing interest in the trades has helped keep enrolment numbers up at Holland College, says a representative for the school.
Donna Sutton, the school’s director of student services, said there has been a push for trades programs from industry and that has helped build interest.
“That’s a relatively new phenomenon for us.”
Sutton said there is an aging workforce with no young people coming behind to fill the gaps once people retire.
The school has benefited from industry involvement in advertising the need for tradespeople, she said.
“It’s almost like they were advertising for Holland College.”
Sutton said Holland College has also seen a huge increase in students with a post-secondary background.
The number now stands at 35 per cent, she said.
“Twenty years ago that was virtually unheard of.”
Shawna Garrett, Acadia University’s executive director of enrolment services, said the school has seen a drop in enrolment in recent years, for many different reasons.
A lot of high school students go straight to college, the birth rate in the Maritimes is on the decline and there is an exodus out west, she said.
“So they can be immediately employed.”
Garrett said the government in Nova Scotia, where the school is located, doesn’t fund universities to the same extent as other provinces.
“Nova Scotia universities still have the highest tuitions in the country.”
A change to the school’s Acadia Advantage program has seen a drop in tuition from $8,062 a year to $6,652, she said.
Under the old program students were required to lease a laptop from the university.
Garrett said students prefer a choice and will now own the laptop outright.
“Ideally that will make Acadia more attractive.”
The school has been active in recruiting internationally to try and boost enrolment and has seen an increase in international students over the past few years, she said.
But Garrett said international students also enrich the classroom and aren’t just enrolment numbers.
“To us it’s much more than that.”
With enrolment numbers down at many Maritime universities, she said there is a need to develop Maritime cooperation.
“I think we’re going to have to work together.”
Sutton said Holland College is sending recruiters out west to recruit and will host information sessions there.
“Let’s bring our Islanders home.”