Study North

With a looming skills shortage in a number of key sectors, including mining, Northern Ontario is on the hunt to attract, and keep, talent. And it’s getting help from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation through the Study North Initiative. A $3 million, three-year marketing program, Study North aims to attract students from Southern Ontario to attend one of the six publicly-funded colleges in the North. It targets students in the Greater Toronto Area and includes an extensive ad campaign, together with three recruiters located in Toronto, who travel yearly to every high school in the area. The sales pitch? Study in Northern Ontario and take advantage of available space in the program of your choice, smaller class sizes and higher levels of student-teacher interaction. Year two of the program has concluded and Fred Gibbons, president of Northern College, says it is working. All the colleges have seen an uptake in admissions of students from Southern Ontario.