The inevitable final year panic: after countless coffee-filled all-nighters, the stress of never-ending deadlines, and nightmares of missing exams, you hope it’s all been worth it. You hope your education lands you a job.
You’re not alone in your graduation anxiety. With today’s high post-secondary admission rates, the supply of graduates each year seems to be outpacing the labour market’s demand—no doubt you’ve heard tales of today’s honours grads becoming masters of latte art.
Canada’s post-recession unemployment rates are high, sitting around 7.1 percent, with a large portion of that number in the 15-to-24 age range. Young people have struggled to tap into the job market as older, more experienced employees moved into new jobs following the recession. Internships, often unpaid, have become almost a rite of passage into the job market—and there’s never certainty that they’ll result in employment.
Canada’s unemployment rates can be cyclical, explains Gordon Betcherman, a University of Ottawa professor who specializes in labour market development. It’s a recurring trend that happens when significant changes in the economy lessen the demand for workers.
“A country like Canada is not in the recession technically, but we still have a stagnant, slow-growing economy. As long as we don’t get back to full economic potential, demand for workers is going to be low,” says Betcherman.
These stories and statistics, however, overlook a huge problem in Canada’s job market: there are countless fields and regions in Canada that desperately need new recruits.
Rural areas of Canada struggle to attract domestic employees. Jobs in the oil sands in Fort McMurray offer lucrative wages and often don’t require substantial experience. Waterloo’s technology sector loses employees to American-based high-tech giants.
The areas currently identified by the government for employee shortages are occupations in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics; information and communications technology; health care; and skilled trades. All these fields require specialized knowledge beyond a general degree.
There are jobs out there—you just need to re-evaluate how you search for them.
The new economy
Starting in the 1950s, Canada entered a sort of “Golden Age” for employment, with a very stable national economy built on low-skill, high-wage labour. After leaving high school, regardless of whether you finished your diploma, you could typically secure a steady job in a given industry—construction, mining, forestry, manufacturing—earn a decent wage, and provide a life for your family. It was the blissful “old economy,” now just a myth satirized in memes.
Today, Canada’s role in the global economy has changed. The manufacturing industry has shrunk due to overseas competition. The development of, and in turn our dependence on, technology has exploded—and it’s become a “great job killer,” making any number of human services obsolete.
Beyond this, minimum requisites for employment have grown. What used to set a job candidate apart is now simply standard. The master’s degree is the new bachelor’s, so to speak.
These changes happened so quickly that nobody anticipated the extent to which they affected our economy. Society as a whole overlooked the transition and is now playing catch-up.
Educating about education
“The economy has shifted and changed and the workforce hasn’t, and our training system hasn’t,” says Ken Coates, the Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.
Part of the problem lies in how people are being educated. “Universities, from a purely economic point of view, are educating too many people in general fields and not educating them very well,” says Betcherman.
Universities are admitting more students than ever before, and students are specializing in subjects that are not well matched to current job trends. Certified teachers have to head overseas to teach or wait five years before landing a full-time job in urban Canada. Law school graduates can’t find articling positions to secure their status as a certified lawyer. Graduates with arts degrees are heading to college to build the specific technical skills they need to become more employable.
“We live in a specialized economy where people need to have the niche skills available for niche economies. We need to stop talking about universities as a privileged place, as though they’re the only places that generate good incomes,” says Coates.
A redirection of people within the education system, and in turn the workforce, to better reflect job demand would be ideal, says Betcherman: “That happens by individuals making decisions based on what’s going on in the world.”
Educators—starting at the secondary level—need to put greater emphasis on informing students about the fields and industries that have growing demand, says Betcherman. Young people need to be aware of job market trends so that they can make informed decisions about their career path.
For Coates, this means telling students to “get over your fear of blue-collar work.” Students and parents fantasize over jobs at big technology firms like Google or Blackberry, he says, while overlooking opportunities that are much more attainable in other fields.
Training for the new economy
Universities offer the broadest educations and are known for providing a challenging academic curriculum. Program and class sizes are often large, and learning is typically based on theory, which means students don’t always get hands-on experience.
“Universities hold to the idea that their job is to educate, not train,” says Coates. “They aren’t comfortable with the idea that they’re there to train people into the workforce.”
Colleges sit on the opposite side of the spectrum. While also academic, colleges focus on applied learning. Their programs are highly specific so that graduates are presumably career-ready upon graduation. In Coates’s view, colleges excel at quickly adjusting their programs to changes and demands in the job market.
Jo-Ann Aubut, dean of academic development at Algonquin College, has studied at both university and college and says there will always be tremendous value to a university education. But given the current economic climate, she feels the opportunities that result directly from a university education are fewer.
“One of the value-adds of a college education is that for years we’ve integrated experiential learning within our programing laboratory and through networking in the community to find real work placements,” she says. The college has diverse labs designed to simulate real-world experience and train students for their specific program. “Ensuring that we provide a working experience for a new graduate better prepares them for this climate that they’re having to compete in.”
Experts from all sides of the issue—economics, education and government—are beginning to realize the need to educate the emerging workforce on what academic institutions offer and where the jobs are.
“It’s just history: there’s always been that perception that if you want a ‘good job,’ and good jobs are typically perceived to be a lawyer, teacher, doctor, you go to university,” says Aubut.
“It’s a process of educating on what the colleges have to offer and I think we’re making headway in communicating that message,” Aubut says. “The majority of jobs are filled by college graduates, not university graduates.”
There certainly isn’t a bank of employers specifically seeking graduates with nothing on their resumé aside from a general bachelor of arts degree and no relevant work experience. That said, the skills students hone in post-secondary are an indispensable asset to employers.
The abilities to problem-solve, network, communicate well, and other interpersonal skills are known as non-cognitive or soft skills. Economists have found that people with strong soft skills generally tend to do well in the workplace.
Joanne McDonald is the manager of Career Services and Student Activities at Algonquin College. She acts as a liaison for employers and students or alumni. She says she finds that “employers are looking for a well-rounded candidate who can demonstrate technical skills, ability and knowledge, but also soft skills.”
The workforce of tomorrow has a big part to play in addressing Canada’s skills mismatch. “Students should be responsible for identifying what it is they want to do and like to do, and making sure it’s something they’re going to usefully be able to be employed in the country,” says Betcherman.
By paying attention to broader trends in the market—the evolution of technology, the aging population, the need for entrepreneurs—young people can forge more secure career paths.
To understand how to fit into the new economy, Coates says, students need to explore the workforce, explore all their academic options, and explore the world. They can’t be “lazy” or laissez-faire when making decisions about their career.
“Take the blinkers off, check out the local schools, visit them, see what they’re like and what programs they have to offer. Try as a student to get summer and part-time job experience that gives you a chance to test your likes and dislikes,” he says.
For those passionate about a field lacking an abundance of jobs, the key may be to start expanding their search within Canada. “You want to have a passion, but if you have a passion and the opportunities are limited geographically where you live, you may have to move to find employment,” says Aubut.
There is hope for the overeducated urban baristas out there. “Young people have to understand that the demographics are working in their favour. In a few years they’re going to see the effect of a labour force switching,” says Betcherman. As the baby-boomers exit the workforce, the demand for workers will inevitably shift, he says.
Regardless of the demand in the market, education is a lifelong pursuit, says Betcherman: “It may take a while, but degrees pay off.”
