The price of oil has been dropping heavily as of late, but even before the sudden drop a years-long shift in the markets has led to some tough times in the patch. With that in mind, many oil workers are seeking retraining, not only to advance in their current careers but to prepare themselves for whatever comes next.

For oil workers in Southeast Saskatchewan, that retraining is coming from Southeast College. The campuses in Estevan and Weyburn have seen an uptick lately in workers coming in looking to expand their knowledge and maybe get certified for a trade.

"What we're noticing is a trend towards kind of your skilled trades when folks are looking to retrain," said Sheena Onrait, Southeast College's marketing and communications director. "Anything from an industrial mechanic, which is the one that just started here, and we have a couple of former oil and gas employees in there, in fact, a couple of journeymen welders in there as well that are retraining in the industrial mechanic trade."

In recent years the college has seen a trend of more oil workers moving into skilled trades, not only industrial mechanics but electricians, welders, and heavy equipment truck and transport. Onrait said the college has always had a lot of diversity among their students, but oil workers are getting more common and could be getting even more so with a shift in global markets.

"We try to anticipate anywhere from a year to three years out," she said. "And that's how we kind of determine what program we're going to run. When we're trying to figure out our program for the next year or the next two years in our business plan that we submit to the government, we try to anticipate those kinds of effects of what's happening not only in our regional area... but in Western Canada as a whole."

One challenge for former oil workers (or anyone else for that matter) going back to college is it's been perhaps quite some time since they had to be a student. Anticipating this, the college has some plans to help with the tough transition.

"At the college, we're known for our small class sizes, which is a huge, huge plus," Onrait said. "You're not walking into a university class of 250 people. You're walking into a class of 8-12 maximum students. It takes away that big feel and it gives you that small family home environment that, especially if you haven't been in school for a long time, it makes you a lot more comfortable."