Post-secondary pursuits

Colleges and apprenticeships serve valued purpose in Ontario’s future

Julia Brook
Julia Brook

Pursuing a post-secondary program is one of the first big decisions many of us make. Post-secondary education sets us on a career trajectory that typically influences the next several years—or decades—of our lives.

The demand for workers in various job sectors is influencing our decisions. As Ontario’s population grows and as baby boomers age, there will be increasing demands for skilled trades people and health-care workers in the coming years—jobs which require post-secondary education.

We can take post-secondary programs at Ontario universities or colleges or we can pursue an apprenticeship with a certified journeyperson. Secondary schools organize their classes in terms of these post-secondary destinations, designating senior level classes as university-preparation, college-preparation or workplace-preparation. Guidance counsellors, the Grade 10 Careers course and visits by post-secondary institutions also help secondary school students make decisions about post-secondary education.

Little is known about the transition from secondary school to post-secondary programs. To what extent do secondary school courses actually facilitate the transition to university, college, or apprenticeship programs? To what extent do other secondary school support networks help students pursue university, college, and apprenticeship programs?

A research study conducted by the Social Program Evaluation Group at Queen’s Faculty of Education led by Alan King and Wendy Warren examined pathways of Ontario secondary students from Grade 9 to the end of secondary school.

Data for the study included students’ records from the Ontario Ministry of Education. These data records were linked to admissions data from the Ontario College Application Service and the Ontario University Application Council. The research team also interviewed 211 people between the ages of 18 and 23 who didn’t directly enter a post-secondary program.

The researchers found that in a cohort of secondary school students, 40 per cent of students enter the workplace after secondary school rather than enrolling in a university-or college-based program.

That means in a given year, about 60,000 Ontario students in a grade cohort don’t go directly to university or college and don’t take-up an apprenticeship—assuming there are 150,000 people in a grade cohort.

When we asked young people why they didn’t go directly to college, university, or an apprenticeship, most cited a lack of knowledge as the main reason. Many interviewees stated that few, if any, colleges visited their secondary school. Further, many interviewees perceived there was very little information about college programs in the guidance department.

Many college-preparation courses have been developed by Ontario’s Ministry of Education.

But a limited number of these courses are offered in secondary schools. Students who might be interested in college programs that correspond to these high school courses may not get the opportunity to explore these fields in secondary school, preventing interested students from receiving an introduction to the field. Young people interested in pursuing college programs aren’t getting access to information that could help them with this decision, which may act as a barrier to post-secondary programs.

It was also evident there wasn’t a direct transition to apprenticeship programs. Very few interviewees knew how to go about pursuing apprenticeship programs and those that did received their information from friends or family members. This is particularly problematic for those interested in the trades—carpentry, plumbing—an area that requires a substantial number of workers in the future. These research findings suggest that college-preparation courses don’t lead directly to college. There seems to be a comparatively smooth transition to university courses compared to those interested in college programs.

If students are interested in attending university, they’ll have access to prerequisite secondary school courses, information about university programs and opportunities to understand university life. But if students are interested in attending college, they may not be able to take the prerequisite courses in secondary school and may receive little information about college programs. This lack of information may cause them not to choose to attend college.

This trend also suggests a systematic lack of recognition about the importance of college and apprenticeship programs in terms of strengthening our economy and meeting the needs of Ontario society.

Changes are necessary to create a smoother transition to college and apprenticeship programs. Most important is the need for more information about college programs, which means that teachers and guidance counsellors need to be better informed about these opportunities. This requires more government support.

There’s also a need to offer more college-level courses to help those interested in college and apprenticeship programs to gain a greater understanding of a specific field and to take the prerequisite courses for their program of interest. Without these changes we send the message to our young people that apprenticeships and college are not valued post-secondary pursuits.

We also put ourselves in danger by preventing many qualified young people from pursuing careers that fill a need in Ontario’s society.

Julia Brook is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education. She’s worked with Alan King and Wendy Warren, professors in the Faculty of Education, since April 2008.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content