SE College offering Office Admin course in Moosomin

March 15, 2019, 6:40 am

After a few years without the program, Southeast College has decided to offer its Office Administration course again in Moosomin this coming fall of 2019.

“I believe it’s been a few years since we’ve offered the Office Administration program in Moosomin so we’re really excited,” says Sheena Onrait, Manager of Marketing and Communications with Southeast College.

“We saw an increase in learner demand over the last year or so, which helped us with this decision to run this course again. As well, some of our staff had been speaking with some of the employers in the region, and when we had the program there prior they had altered some of their recruiting tactics to include the Office Administration in their recruiting, so they were definitely looking for something of that caliber of post secondary education for their available positions. So that was another big factor—the fact that folks are looking to recruit those graduated students.”

The office administration course is a 32-week course that will start in the fall and run until May of 2020.

“They learn their basic business communication skills, business software applications like Excel and Word,” says Onrait. “They learn a bit of Publisher and Adobe. They learn to do general office procedures like reception and mail processing, telephone communication, how to take notes in a meeting, how to file electronic records. There is some basic accounting courses as well.”

Onrait says this just provides learners with one more option for a career path.

“It is really great for them to have another post secondary education option locally and to have a direct career path to it,” she says. “Basically they can be anything from a receptionist to holding entry level positions at financial institutions.”

She says Southeast College has hired some of the graduates themselves.

“Off the top of my head I know we have three staff, three graduates of the program, working here between the campuses in Estevan and Weyburn. It’s your basic education for you entry level administrative type of positions.”

The course is only being offered in Moosomin this year.

“That Moosomin-Whitewood area is kind of a niche area because you are two hours from Regina and two hours from Brandon,” says Onrait. “It’s a long way sometimes for folks to commit to, so to be able to bring varied options to that area is extremely beneficial for the folks that don’t want to relocate to the larger center.”
Students can register fro the course at the campus or online. Onrait says there is also a free registration day coming up soon.
“We have a free registration day coming up that will be March 20 where we will waive students’ application fee of $50,” she says. “They can register for free on that day to all of our full-time programs. So that will also include Electrician, Continuing Care Assistants, or if we have students that want to take Heavy Equipment or Truck or Transport or Power Engineering—that’s college-wide.”

Southeast College operates campuses in six communities throughout Saskatchewan.

Some of the other full-time programs being offered by the college in 2019-2020 are as follows:

Electrician Applied Certificate, Moosomin
The Electrician Applied Certificate in Moosomin will be starting in the fall of 2019. Always a popular course, this 18-week program usually fills up every year.

“The Applied Certificate program is equivalent to a Level 1. Once completed, students can go out and secure employment, register with Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and then start working towards their Level 2,” says Onrait.

“Our course in Moosomin is one that’s almost fully subscribed, meaning we have 12 spots available in that course and it’s almost always full. That is one we always have very high numbers on.”

Continuing Care Assistant Certificate, Whitewood & Weyburn
“This is another longstanding program,” says Onrait. “It will be a fall start for that program as well, and this one is a little bit longer, it’s a 32-week program. That combines the hands-on learning as well, as there is practical clinical learning with the Continuing Care Assistant Program.

“Students are placed on practicums throughout the area, and when they finish they are fully qualified Continuing Care Assistants, so they are eligible to go work in care homes and home care. Those are usually the most common positions post-course with the Continuing Care Assistant Program.”

First-year university classes, Moosomin
This fall marks the third year that the College will be offering first-year university classes through the University of Regina, and Onrait is excited about how well this has gone over.
“We usually don’t find out that until just about May or June exactly what classes we are going to be offering, but it will be similar to what we have offered in the past,” she says. “We are having really good success with it, so we don’t anticipate a whole lot of changes. Sometimes one odd class will change, but for the most part the core classes have remained the same the past two years.”

Onrait says interest in the first-year U of R classes appears to be growing.
“Last year we had about 10-12 students for full-time and part-time across our region. This year we’ve doubled. We have approximately 18-20 students this year. That’s very exciting.
“I think it just shows that the word is getting out there, that you can take your first year of university close to home, that there are advantages to taking that first year in a smaller setting in a smaller facility with a really close-knit cohort of students. There is the small class sizes, you always have a student advisor there if you’re having a challenge with anything.”

Entrance Scholarships
One thing the college is excited about every year is the amount of guaranteed entrance scholarships they offer. This year the college is offering $75,000 in Southeast College Entrance awards to full-time program students for 2019-2020.

“This year we have $75,000 in entrance awards to give away to full-time post secondary as well as full-time university students, so students need to apply early because there is not quite enough to cover everyone should we be fully subscribed come fall. So students need to apply early, and the earlier the better,” says Onrait.

“They do need to apply before June 30 and be accepted into their program area before June 30 in order to be eligible for those scholarships. They are eligible for $500 for a full-time post secondary program, and it is $500 per semester for a university student taking a full course load.

“There is no application needed. Just by submitting your application for a program, you’re automatically eligible to receive those Southeast College entrance awards. We make it easy.”