Sault College unveils electronic kiosks to attract future students

Sault College will soon be using electronic information kiosks to attract local high school students to its Northern Avenue campus.

Tony Bitonti, Sault College marketing manager, provided a demonstration of the ‘Sault College Program Information and Career Search Kiosk’ to the college’s board of governors at its meeting Thursday.

“We do a lot of (marketing) work traditionally through our publications and our viewbooks but we want to create memorable experiences (for prospective students),” Bitonti told the board.

It is hoped that the first kiosk — still being populated with more information for high school students to check out — will be erected in the college’s Welcome Centre in the fall.

The kiosk will include labour market information for a wide variety of professions, Sault College program requirements and virtual tours of the campus.

Those students who know which Sault College program they would like to enter can go straight to that specific program’s information on the kiosk while those that are still trying to decide can use the kiosk in making a program choice.

The college is looking at establishing other kiosks in each of the Sault's high schools.

The kiosk is seen as a useful tool for local high school guidance counsellors to help students decide on a Sault College program to enrol in.

It was also suggested by Sault College board member Sandra Hollingsworth that an additional kiosk could be installed at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport’s terminal. 

Each kiosk would cost between $5,000 and $6,000, Bitonti said.

“We’ll be working with high school guidance counsellors to connect things like passions or abilities to programs that we offer,” Bitonti said.

The kiosks will include information such as labour market conditions, salary expectations and how the local job market looks in a wide range of fields.

Sault College currently has approximately 1,500 domestic students, approximately 700 of whom are local students, Bitonti said in his presentation to the board.

“The local school boards have guidance counsellors that are incredibly passionate and committed to what they do,” said David Orazietti, Sault College president, in an interview with reporters after Thursday’s board meeting. 

“This is another opportunity, another means by which the guidance counsellors can utilize technology to communicate with students in a way that perhaps is more relevant to students in understanding the courses and programs we offer. This is our local catchment area and our local marketplace and we want to do the best job we can in providing that information to young people in our community,” Orazietti said.

Sault College board of governors chair Don Mitchell said the kiosk will be a handy tool to use in attracting high school grads to study skilled trades at the college.

“Right now moms and dads are talking about how they want their daughters and sons to be doctors and lawyers and the colleges are competing with that. It’s so important that they have a knowledge of what’s out there in the trades and how good an opportunity it is,” Mitchell told the board.