Post-Secondary Education: Is It Worth It?

The following article was sent by Jason Kenney's press office. Kenney is Calgary SE's MP and is Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism.  I highly recommend this article about changing educational views, particularly how educators and parents 'sell' the benefits of university over college or trade school.  I sense an approaching shift in the educational paradigm - is it because of employment pressure, do we just want to 'protect' our borders from immigration, or is the real question, "What's it worth?". Do we just need to refine our expectations? 

Please leave a comment about your experience with university vs. college vs. no post-secondary education - was it worth it?  Would you do something different, are you going to pressure your children into a post-secondary program? Is education its own reward?

 
Reforms to address youth unemployment

Matt Gurney, National Post

The work is hard. And not glamorous. And obviously, the majority of the Canadian population does not live in the breadbasket regions of the West where the fields need to be harvested. But it's good work, available, and if a Mexican or Romanian is willing
to fly across a continent or ocean for a decent-paying job, why can't young Canadians skip over a province or two and make some money in their own country? Same language, same culture, same laws, same money. What's the problem?

Self-image, says Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who met with the National Post editorial board on Wednesday to talk about upcoming changes to the immigration system and employment insurance. "I think there's been a couple of generations of young Canadians who've been given the idea that if they don't work in an office with a computer, they're somehow deficient."

Tens of thousands of these Canadians go into universities every year, taking courses that will leave them with loads of debt and no realistic prospects for a decent-paying job.

"One of the things that frustrates me is that it seems to me that culturally, perhaps in our education system, we have devalued basic work and trades," Mr. Kenney said. "And this is unfortunate. I'm not saying that young Canadians should lower or change their expectations; they need to realize what's possible."

In the months ahead, the government will unveil reforms to the Employment Insurance system to link benefits to the local demand for jobs. The Minister offered no details during the editorial board meeting except to promise more would come, but was clear that, when enacted, these reforms would address the problem of having areas of the country with stubbornly high unemployment needing to import foreigners to plug local labour shortfalls.

"What we will be doing is making people aware there's hiring going on and reminding them that they have an obligation to apply for available work and to take it if they're going to qualify for EI," Mr. Kenney said. He acknowledged that Canadians can't be compelled to uproot their entire lives and move across the country to fill a job opening, but it can be done on a regional or local level. "Perhaps we can encourage people to go down the street to get jobs," he added. "I don't regard working as upheaval."

Good. Importing labour while Canadians collect unemployment has always been bizarre. But the Minister also addressed another loaded issue, one as urgently in need of addressing as reforms to EI. Why are there good jobs out there that aren't being filled by young Canadians, despite high youth unemployment?

The best estimates for youth unemployment in Canada right now hover around 14%, double the national average. The real unemployment figure is undoubtedly higher. Meanwhile, the Prairie provinces, according to Mr. Kenney, consider the shortage of workers to be the biggest issue facing their economies. The market has partially tried to address this by ramping up the wages offered (a $25 an hour wage for agriculture workers in Saskatchewan was the example Mr. Kenney used). But there is a point at which the wages simply can't go any higher, given the fundamental value of the commodity.

It's not just agricultural workers that are in demand. Canada needs engineers, computer technicians and thousands of skilled tradespeople. Increasingly, a student who uses borrowed money to get that four-year bachelor's degree will find themselves needing to go back to college for training to get a job shortly thereafter. Why not skip ahead of the curve and make money while your peers are taking on debt in pursuit of a dead-end degree?

"It's a free country," Mr. Kenney said. "People will make the choices they make."

Indeed. But parents and educators owe it to their children to make sure those choices are informed ones. A good place to start is pointing out that a farm in Saskatchewan is just as honourable a place to work as an office in Toronto.