There's reason to celebrate at College Boreal tonight.
More than 30 students are walking across the stage to pick up their diplomas at the Timmins campus.
While David Tremblay's hairstyling program doesn't officially wrap up until the beginning of July, he's one of the students graduating tonight.
He's been playing in hair since he was young and says the program is something he should have taken right out of high school, but he wasn't ready.
Eventually the stars aligned and he enrolled at the College Boreal program.
“It was really good, I felt I learned everything I needed to learn at the right time. The teachers were very, very patient with the students,” he said.
When the course wraps up, he intends to become a colour specialist.
Right now he likes working with the blonde tones, doing highlights, balayage or ombre work.
"Those are the things that I really enjoy doing because it’s very artistic and everyone does it differently, so I like adding my own touch to it,” he said.
After nursing student Paula Tremblay picks up her diploma, she'll have a little time off before starting her first job.
Tremblay has lined up work at the hospital in Hearst, her hometown.
“It’s nerve-wracking for sure, but I feel prepared. I know my skills and I’m more than ready to take on my career,” she said.
She's always wanted to work in the health field.
Before taking the nursing program, she'd see job postings for nursing jobs and wished she could apply.
“I was working in the administration field at that time and I got a lay off, so I decided to go back to school and try for nursing and I ended up falling in love with the profession,” she said.
Having students line up jobs before walking across the stage for graduation is becoming a common practice, according to College Boreal vice president of business development Brian Vaillancourt.
“For the last two years, all our graduates are finding jobs. We’re in a position now where employers are coming in to do interviews on campus or do some recruitment, sometimes as early as the end of January we have no more graduates," he said.
In the nurse practitioner program, he noted 100 per cent of the students passed the provincial exam, which he said shows the quality of the programs at the community college.
