Keyano College has announced additional staff layoffs in a second round of cuts intended to help manage expenses and stay competitive in the current economy. The Trades and Industrial Safety Certifications classes have been cut, and these cuts and staff layoffs are a response by the college to increasing financial pressure as the local economy is still in a decline. Keyano College announced the cuts and cited various reasons for the cancellations and layoffs. The classes saw a declining demand, and the college is facing shrinking revenues. The economic downturn in the region was responsible for the previous and newest cuts according to Keyano College academic vice president Catherine Koch. The college has seen declining revenues from the services that were offered to the energy industry nd industry employees, making the latest cuts the obvious choice.

The most recent staff layoffs at Keyano College included 4 instructors and a coordinator, plus 8 positions of support staff. This means that the number of employees laid off by the school since the beginning of the year now stands at 31. According to Keyano spokesperson Matthew Harrison “When you have a cut in programing, you have to also align the different services and operations that you have as a college as a whole. So we did have a reduction in staff there.” Catherine Koch also reported that the certification programs that were cut by Keyano College can be found in other places in the community. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to make a cut if we were the only provider in the region and people needed it for their jobs.”