Education/training
Warning for dropoutsHordes of Alberta teens spurning high school to pursue the province’s hot job market are on thin ice, suggests a survey touting the value of post-secondary education. |
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 [ 2006-12-16 ] |
Hordes of Alberta teens spurning high school to pursue the province’s hot job market are on thin ice, suggests a survey touting the value of post-secondary education.
The study — conducted by University of Alberta researchers — followed more than 2,600 Grade 12 students from 1996 to 2003 and concluded young people with advanced education enjoyed better pay, benefits and job satisfaction.
For the short to intermediate term, those graduated from technical institutes earn as much as their university counterparts,said study co-author Dr. Harvey Krahn.
“The skilled trades were doing as well as the university grads...you won’t find that in other provinces,” he said.
Ultimately though, university grads fare better as they’re more likely to advance to at least middle management positions, said Krahn.
Those findings are cautionary advice to young Albertans, of whom between 25 and 30% drop out of high school to take advantage of a profound labour shortage, he said.
“We still have a very serious leakage problem, dropout problem but our survey indicates young people do know it’s important to stay in school,” said Krahn.
“If something happened to the oil prices it’d only be a matter of time when those $13 or $14 an hour delivery jobs fall back to nine dollars.”
The survey of students from 58 high schools showed 88% enrolled in post-secondary education sometime between the age of 18 and 25.
It also found the province’s strategy of locating colleges and training schools in mid-sized communities was paying off.
“We’ve got it somewhat right, we’re building the needed infrastructure,” said Krahn.
Such institutions enable young people who went into the workforce after high school the flexibility to come back to class — something lacking in places like Europe he added.
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