With tuition, books, accommodation, groceries, transportation and other expenses, post-secondary education can be expensive. But with its Professional Clothing Depot, Cambrian College wants to eliminate at least one financial stressor for students.
The depot is a one-stop clothes resource for students who require work-appropriate attire as they prepare for a placement or enter the workforce.
In the past, students had been able to access pop-up shops, stocked with donations from faculty, twice a year, said Rhaili Champaigne, president of the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) at the Sudbury school.
But in March of last year, the school established a permanent professional clothing depot, the first of its kind.
“The whole point of the depot is to make sure that students feel comfortable and confident, with less stress going on a placement or during the job search,” Champaigne said.
The depot stocks everything from suits, blazers and dress pants to ties and high heels, in addition to accessories like briefcases, purses, and winter coats, boots and gloves.
But Champaigne emphasized that work clothes aren’t just limited to office attire.
With programming heavy in the skilled trades and health sciences, Cambrian students also need work gloves, steel-toed boots, hard hats, and scrubs.
Steel-toed boots and scrubs are mandatory for students in the skilled trades and health sciences programs, respectively, and that can add up, especially since students need at least five days’ worth of professional clothing for their placements.
“We all know how much it is to try to stock our wardrobes, so we don’t want students to take out more loans or borrow more money and have that financial stress on them,” Champaigne said. “It’s a really good program; I’m really happy with it.”
The Professional Clothing Depot is available to Cambrian students throughout the year. Students can visit the SAC office any time during regular office hours, browse the racks of clothing, try items on, and put together different outfits and accessories. The service is available at no cost to the students.
One student recently used the service because she only had jeans in her wardrobe.
“She was extremely, extremely stressed trying to find money to get pants that she was able to wear on her placement, and when she came out of the clothing depot, you could see how relieved she was,” Champaigne said.
“It was a really remarkable thing to be able to help this student.”
Champaigne said this time of year, when many people make new year’s resolutions to organize and purge their wardrobes, is an ideal opportunity to donate gently used articles of clothing.
Items can be dropped off during regular office hours, or they can be left in clear bags, marked as a donation for the depot, outside the SAC office.
To date, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and Champaigne lauds the community for stepping up to help students in the next stage of their education.
“They have so many different financial stressors, to be able to take clothes off of it, it’s a pretty big deal for students,” she said.
“I think the people that have donated have really realized that, so it’s really great to see the community so happy to donate.”
