Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

What do young people do after graduating from a post-secondary institution?

This two-part project examines the pathways that students follow after obtaining their first post-secondary credentials by studying:

1. Patterns of participation in further education—consisting of structured education, non-formal education and career-related training and courses—amongst post-secondary graduates; and
2. The link between pursuing further education and employment patterns.

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Report #1

Canadian post-secondary graduates and further education: Who continues and why?

By Maria Adamuti-Trache and Colleen Hawkey, University of British Columbia

Goal

This report examined patterns of participation in further education amongst post-secondary graduates from colleges and institutes, university colleges, and universities across Canada. Further education consists of formal (structured) education at the post-secondary level (e.g., degree and non-degree programs that lead to some formal recognition) and non-formal education and training offered by various providers (e.g., career-related training courses).

Description

Significant differences were found in educational attainment among the studied groups in that age and gender affect educational profiles.

• First, respondents in the Aboriginal group are more likely to have graduated in 2000 from non-university institutions, while immigrants and non-Aboriginal respondents from university level studies.

• Second, the age patterns show that non-Aboriginal participants are younger on average than others. Particularly at the bachelor’s and graduate levels, immigrant and Aboriginal respondents tend to be older. At the college level, Aboriginal and immigrant respondents tend to be older.

• Third, women represent about 60% of the post-secondary graduates. For the Aboriginal and immigrant groups in particular, female over-representation occurs at the college level.

Findings

In 2002, two years after graduation from Canadian colleges and universities, one in three graduates engaged in further education through post-secondary programs. By 2005, almost half of graduates participated in further post-secondary education.

Although there is a clear decrease in participation by age, even the less active age group (45-64) continued to be involved in post-secondary program education: one in four respondents in this age group took post-secondary programs within 2 and 5 years since graduation.

Job related motives (e.g., get a job; get a better job; earn more; perform better on the current job) were the most frequently identified reasons for continuing education and training after completing post-secondary education in 2000. However, about one in three participants in further studies mentioned self-improvement reasons.

Finances

Large proportions of immigrant and non-Aboriginal respondents identified personal sources (i.e., earnings and savings) as a main source of funding and these proportions increased with age. In contrast to the other two citizenship groups, Aboriginal respondents benefitted from substantial funding from other sources, mainly government funding programs.

Loans, and especially student loans, were an important funding source of post-secondary education for respondents younger than 25 years of age. Among all citizenship groups, those in the 25 to 29-year age range were most likely to have ever had a student loan.

Employer support was three times higher for respondents enrolled in job-related courses compared to those enrolled in programs. Aboriginal post-secondary graduates were most likely to receive employer support for further education, especially for courses.

Report #2

Further education pathways and employment patterns of Canadian university graduates

Maria Adamuti-Trache, University of British Columbia

Description

This paper examines the association between further education and employment pathways by adult Canadians who graduated from post-secondary institutions in the early 2000s and had at least a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education. It introduces a typology of further education and training pathways to recognize the role of individual learners in choosing how to invest in their education in order to maximize educational returns. The focus on Canadians who already have a university degree is meant to illustrate that even in the case of highly educated workers, who are expected to have some advantage in the labour market and who can easily accumulate more human capital if needed, educational choices and employment outcomes appear to be controlled by social structural attributes and situational factors.

The analysis shows that about half of all adult university graduates continued further studies within two years after graduation. Of those who continued further studies, about half attended post-secondary education (PSE) programs and half took career-related training courses. Enrolment in PSE pathways showed that about half of participants chose university degree programs, about one quarter chose university non-degree programmes and another one quarter chose non-university programmes offered by colleges and institutes.

Findings

The paper employs a correspondence analysis of data to reveal that further education choices are associated with socio-demographic, post-secondary characteristics, and situational factors—a relationship that is controlled by the learner’s access to resources (e.g., type of employment, PSE funding).

It also identifies that the social space is structured by the duration of education and training activities and brings evidence on various types of resources that emerge from employment, financial patterns, and availability of family support and other non-repayable funding sources.

Family background as defined by parental education plays a relevant role in the decision-making process regarding further education pathways. Those who are more likely to enrol in university degree programmes have at least one parent with graduate education.

The correspondence analysis also illustrates the association between further education choices and current employment characteristics. The most important finding is that non-participants and those involved in career-related training are individuals with quite rewarding employment situations. On the contrary, respondents who engaged in university non-degree and non-university programmes are more likely to be ‘trapped’ in uncertain employment situations. This relationship could explain why many highly-educated workers remain engaged in continuing education as a means to improve the quality of their current employment.

The current study demonstrated that:

1. not all university graduates are similarly situated with respect to further education opportunities; and
2. their current employment situation and further education are largely associated.

While the first aspect is an indicator of persistent social inequity in the Canadian society, the latter aspect is particularly important in understanding learners’ motivation for further education as a strategy to establish better positions in the labour market.

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