Enrolment levels at St. Clair College in southwestern Ontario are the highest in the school's 42-year history, making it "a banner year," the school president said Monday.

Overall, enrolment at the school's three campuses increased 19 per cent.

"We have more people in the downtown [Windsor] campus than we've ever had," John Strasser said. "More people in Chatham than we've ever had and more people on the main campus. So we're excited."

More than 800 full-time students are enrolled at St. Clair's Centre for the Arts in downtown Windsor, a 51 per cent increase over 2008.

Enrolment increased 26 per cent at the Chatham campus, located about 72 kilometres east of Windsor, where more than 1,300 full-time students now specialize in business, technology and health and community studies.

At the main campus in Windsor, enrolment increased 17 per cent to 6,728 students.

The increase is connected to the area's economic situation, school officials believe.

Students who might have taken a year off after high school to work or travel are instead going to school, said John Fairley, the school's director of communications, and getting a college education is "top of mind."

"I think they realize that in the competition of getting jobs, with people getting displaced, that's increased the value of having a college education and great training from a community college," he said.

The increase is also partly due to higher numbers of "second career people," Fairley said, referring to students who were laid off after Jan. 1, 2005, currently unemployed or working in a job they were compelled to take while seeking better employment.

Close to 1,000 students are second career students, Fairley said.

Windsor has the highest unemployment rate among Canadian cities, at 14.9 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

St. Clair launched its second career program with aid from the Ontario government in 2008.