Southeast College hosted prospective students at their campus for an information session on Wednesday, November 27. For those thinking of going to university in the Southeast, a chance to look inside Southeast College's programs and see exactly what they offer new students was just what the doctor ordered. Or rather, just what the nurse ordered.

"Coming up in September we will be doing a new intake for our two-year practical nursing," said college marketing and communications director Sheena Onrait. "That one is always a high demand program, it always has a lot of questions. There's a lot of different scenarios for applying and being accepted into that one." 

Nursing and heavy equipment/truck and transport technician programs have been among the most popular programs, but with a growing variety of classes and distance learning courses with the University of Regina, Onrait has seen firsthand that people in the Southeast are still interested in practical education.

"It was really really well attended," Onrait said. "I'm so impressed by the amount of prospective students and parents that came to see us. It's always nice when you hold an event each year and every year your attendance is just more and more and more. It just proves that post-secondary education is needed in rural Saskatchewan and people are really starting to take that and use that as an advantage for them."

The college's information night may be over, but Onrait said they haven't closed their doors on those who want to learn more. The college is a public building, and people are welcome to not only come to look around but also take another tour. 

"We would invite anyone who wants to talk to one of our staff or our student advisers onto our campus at any time.Of course we can always give students or parents a tour of our campus at any time our campus is open."

While the distance courses at the U of R might not be the most popular of their programs, it is one of the fastest growing. The relatively young option at the college has quickly attracted a following.

"Every year we offer it we have more and more students. This year, 19-20, we doubled our student's registration in first year University of Regina classes. So we have twice as many students this year as we did last year, which is amazing." 

"We try to offer programs that we know students are going to be interested in," she added, "and that we know is going to have a labour market attachment, I.E. a job, at the end."