Chapter 8: School-to-work Transitions
After reading this chapter of our text, I had mixed emotions about my education, future career prospects, and transition into adulthood. It did not surprise me that more and more young adults are entering post-secondary education institutions, when credential inflation is the reality for future generations. "Most students must pay tuition fees in order to attend a post-secondary institution" through various means (231). As discussed in the chapter some work while attending school, other get student loans from the provincial and federal government, if grades are competitive some may qualify and receive scholarships and grants and for some very lucky individuals, have their parents to pay for their schooling. The textbook states "tuition fees of post-secondary institutions have been steadily rising over the years" (231). It does not surprise me that the national average of debt that each students has upon completion of education is around $27,000.
It was a hard pill to swallow that it seems like the more education and qualification you possess the harder it will be for you to find employment. Many young adults upon graduating "face difficulty in finding a suitable job or even a job at all" (239). Bayard and Geenlee state "the unemployment rates of young adults who hold bachelor's degrees is lower than the rates of those who have post-secondary diplomas or certificates" (239). However, despite this the challenge remains for "finding a job with acceptable pay, and finding a job that is related to education" (239). It becomes a case of who you know and not what you know, (social capital) which can ultimately get a graduate hired in a job that is related to their education. The text states that if you have a university degree you are more likely to receive full-time employment when compared to a compatible college credential (240). But the text also states the depressing reality that while those of us that graduate with a bachelor's degree from a university faired better than college graduates, only "77% of us will actually receive full-time employment" (240).
The "underlying assumption is that the more education a person has, the more competitive he or she will be in the labour market" (244). However, the research suggests that "job-education mismatch and overqualified workers are the reality" (244). According to Boudarbat and Chernoff an estimated one in three Canadians are in jobs that are not matched to their educational training. I know from personal experience, when recently applying for a summer job the interviewer asked what I was studying in school, when I had informed her I was in education she laughed and said that many of the employees that work there are trained educators that could not get full-time employment as teachers and had taken this job in order to have full-time employment. But when studies suggest that "23% of Canadians indicated that there was no relationship between their education and job," it is not surprising to hear stories like this (242).
While reading the section on the transition to adulthood, I found it amusing that when I compared my life currently to the five key transitions that must be attained to be considered an adult, I only have one of the five. BUT by next may I will have 3! In order to have fully transitioned into adulthood one must have completed education, have left the parental home, (check) have completed one year of full-time employment, (does this mean after graduation? maybe I currently can check off two) have gotten married or are in a "conjugal" partnership (I'm getting married in July, so half a checkmark?) and have children (not for a few years please). And so those in generation next (z or the internet generation) are classified by Arnett as emerging adults (253). In a stage in-between adolescence and adulthood or kidults if you will, because our generation is leaving home later due to an increase in education.
Discussion Question:
As educators should we be encouraging students to follow the linear transition, high school to post-secondary to jobs as we were? Or should we break the traditional mould and deviate from this, knowing what we now know?
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