Cheryl Wood (Blog 8)

This week we looked at chapter 8 “School-to-Work Transitions”. Throughout the text it was comparing students today to students of the past as well as students from different countries. All throughout the percentages of students being in school longer now than years ago have all gone up making changes as to when students move out of their parent’s homes get married and have a family (page 249).

“23 percent of Canadians indicated that there was no relationship between their education and their job,” (page 242). More Canadians are finding their selves in a position where they cannot find jobs that match their educational training. Right now I would consider myself in this category. I work at a Home Hardware. This has nothing to do with my arts degree or Education in any way. Even though I am the only person with a degree at my work place I am not being paid more because of this. I have also noticed a divide between pay between the males and females. The males at my work place get paid more than the females. It’s discouraging when they are the ones who tend to be sitting around, fooling around, and disappearing more often than anyone else. 

Page 247 discusses student employment. I am considered an employed student. Throughout all of my schooling beginning in middle years all the way through my university schooling I have had at least one job if not more. There has been a juggle between studying and doing well in school along with working as much as I can to make a paycheck. My social life has suffered some but not completely. By the end of my schooling I will be debt free for schooling, although I can’t say debt free altogether as I will still be paying for our mortgage on our house. 

Throughout the transitions I was surprised that buying a house or condo or apartment was not a transition. To me, buying our first house would be considered a transition, but it was not mentioned in this chapter, unless if it was supposed to be tied into leaving the parental home. I also recognize that not all people own their own home in a life time and also considered this as to why it was not included as one of the key transitions.   

Discussion question:

Where do you find yourself when it comes to the five key transitions (completing education, leaving the parental home, completing one year of full-time employment, entering a spousal or “conjugal” partnership, and having children)?