Layoffs fuel trades training boom

As reported by the CBC News:

Enrolment in trade schools in Newfoundland and Labrador is booming, all because of the economic downturn in the oil fields of Alberta, according to some instructors.

Workers from the province who had been employed in the oilsands, who were laid off in the winter season, have returned to Newfoundland and Labrador to upgrade their skills in the classroom.

Trades schools, such as Academy Canada, a private college with campuses in St. John’s and Corner Brook, often report an increase in the winter months as apprentices experience annual layoffs and return to school for upgrading. But this year Academy Canada reports enrolment has increased 20 per cent from numbers at the same time in 2007.

In the steamfitter shop at the campus, 75 per cent of the students are apprentices who recently returned from work camps in Alberta because of layoffs.