Cache Bay's Marc Lacroix has plugged into Canadore College's electrical techniques program to kickstart his career in the trades.

The 19-year-old will finish the 30-week course with more than the basic equivalency to enter an apprenticeship in an industry starving for fresh blood.

"It's really interesting and what I wanted to do," Lacroix said Wednesday as he wired breakers in one of three practical labs at the Commerce Court campus.

A Franco-Cite graduate, Lacroix had some exposure to the industry through a secondary school co-op placement at Dom's Electric.

Having an electrical trades program so close to home is a bonus, he said.

Canadore's Board of Governors held its monthly meeting at the Commerce Court campus so its members could see first hand the impact the trades programs are having.

Enrollment at Canadore is expected to meet last year's 12-month average of 3,500 partially due to a new focus on trades curriculum, president Barb Taylor said.

When the program was launched earlier this year, they expected only 16 students and took in 32, Taylor said.

For the second intake in September, they had more than 200 applications and accepted 48 students.

"We have a really good shop," Taylor said and the board members needed to see the results of their planning these past few years.

"And it gave them a chance to talk to some of the students and teachers."

Faculty member Steven Draves said they have more than $350,000 invested in the computer lab that gives the students an opportunity to learn the basics of electricity and track their learning with data programs.

Complete with docking stations for various tools, Draves said the results are recorded in student files and the teachers can see what they are picking up and what needs to be reviewed.

Another lab is partitioned like a home under construction and the students are tested by handing them blueprints directing them to wire the structure to building code standards.

Technologist Bruce Grainger said graduates of the program can easily find work in booming centres such as Sudbury and out west.

At least one student has already been hired to an apprenticeship, the first step in working toward an electrician's licence which can take five years in the commercial sector.

"Once you're signed on, you've won the battle," Grainger said, adding you take that with you to the next job and continue adding up shifts to reach the 9,000-hour milestone.

Draves said not very many teenagers these days get a taste of the trades and a program like this gives them an idea what the industry is about.

Four out of the 48 students registered this term, he said, decided to pursue other avenues soon after they were shown basic expectations.

"Young people don't have any idea what's it like to be a tradesperson," he said, and programs such as this make it easier on the employers.

"This drastically reduces their learning curve and they should be somewhat productive on their first jobs," Draves said.

Taylor said this year's enrollment so far is 3,063 - which is 24 students shy of last year's number at this time. But winter intakes for programs starting in January, she said, will pull that number up to the expected 3,500 average over 12 months that has normal for the past three years.

She said Canadore's enrollment jumped by seven per cent four years ago and has maintain a plateau ever since.

"We're pretty well on target and the good news is that we've steady for about three years," she said, with projections of two per cent growth annually for the immediate future.