What’s a Student to Do?

Interesting article in Monday’s Globe & Mail newspaper on the labour market and how that market needs better career advice and incentives to invest in training for its staff: (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/canadas-labour-pain-13-million-jobless-but-not-enough-skills/article10595715/)
I remember not long ago when my sons were in high school here in Toronto, how proud the school was that the vast majority of their graduating students went on to university. In fact, when my younger son crossed the stage to pick up his high school diploma, they announced where each student was headed. Of the 200 or so who graduated ( don’t know exactly how many were on hand to receive their diplomas since convocation was in October and they actually finished school the prior June), I recall one or two who were still deciding what they were doing after high school, only a handful (as in maybe five) headed to a college and everyone else to one university or another.
While it is encouraging to see so many young people heading off to institutions of higher learning, is it right for everyone? Is university the answer for everyone? Certainly if you have a plan or a goal and that entails a university degree (let’s say doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, investment banker, physiotherapist, etc.), that is certainly the only way to go. But what if you’re good with your hands and want to do something else? What if you don’t want to invest another four years behind a desk at school? What if you want to work for yourself, want a steady income, want to be in the outdoors or simply want to try different options before deciding what to do? A $60,000 investment when you don’t know what you want to do is a lot of money to spend – or borrow!
So many of the students I knew who were graduating with my sons got accepted into universities but at what cost? Many took a number of their courses at pop-up strip mall ‘alternative schools’ just to get the grades to get into those universities. What happens when they get there and those alternatives are not available to them? How do they compete then? How do they differentiate themselves and succeed? But I digress.
More needs to be done at the high school level by teachers and guidance counselors to educate these students on career paths, career choices and the options open to them. Someone first needs to ensure these educators know what’s available to students, where the jobs are, what the post-high school programs are and where. They can no longer routinely teach the same programs and keep churning out students who then have to decide for themselves what to do and where to go.
A university education today is routine for so many people but what’s available to the vast majority after graduating from a general degree program? Where do they go and what do they do? In a world where you need a university degree to be a retail store manager in a mall despite perhaps having no other qualifications or experience, is a world in which something is wrong. When so many young people have a university degree and no jobs, something is wrong. When so many students are unemployed after university and go on to get master’s degrees and are still unemployed or are stringing several part-time jobs together to make ends meet and pay off their debt, tells us the system is not working.
We need to do more to encourage students to look at all of their options … to think about what they like to do and what they excel in. And then give them the support and tools and training they need to succeed in life. We need to give them the knowledge to understand how to prepare for the career that might be right for them. How to land a good job, to support themselves and their families, to be contributing members of our society.
I’m trying to do that…one student at a time…or as is the case now…in one classroom at a time. What are you doing?