It was not that many generations ago that people viewed a high school diploma as an admission ticket to the workplace. Once in the workplace, high school grads combined a good work ethic with their talents to succeed. There are still many people in the workforce today that benefited from this path way. Unfortunately, this “self-made” approach to career success that worked so well for older workers is better served in a Career Museum than in today’s economy. 

As pointed out by Bricker and Greenspan in their book Searching for Certainty,  post-secondary education has become the norm rather than the exception. This is a good thing considering that economists estimate that the jobs of tomorrow are going to require about 17 years of education. This notion is supported by figures on the CanLearn website (taken from the Minister of Finance) that show the number of jobs available for Canadians with a secondary school education has dropped by two million since 1981. Over the same period the number of jobs available for those with a higher qualification increased by five million. 

In our global economy this trend towards education opening up doors to employment, offering more pay and job security is being played out in numerous countries besides Canada. A recent study by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) identified that on average post-secondary grads make at least 58% more earnings than those who only completed secondary school. These figures included grads in the United Kingdom, United States, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Switzerland. 

Closer to home there are also many figures that support the notion that higher education pays off. These findings include: 

• Unemployment rates are consistently lower in Canada for trades, college and university graduates than secondary school graduates. Even worse, those with less than a secondary school diploma faced significantly higher rates of unemployment than secondary school grads. 

• BC Stats reports that the gap in earnings between the educated and lesser educated increases over a working life. In the 15-24 age group, university grads earn only 34% more than those who have not completed secondary school. However, by the last 20 years of their careers, the gap has widened to 71%.

 

• Numbers crunched by a senior analyst for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada from the 2001 census estimated that the added value of a college or university credential is at least one million dollars. This estimate was based on a 40-year career at a full-time job. A couple of factors contributing to this total were people with degrees were much more likely to be employed in their peak mid-career earning years and continue in full-time jobs later into their lives.

 

• Research also suggests that women have a higher earning potential with a university education than those with a secondary school diploma. A 2003 CanWest News Service survey found that university educated women earned $2.73 for every dollar a women with a secondary school diploma earned.
  

The numbers supporting the benefits of post-secondary go on and on. However, CollegeBoard (a US non profit educational association) probably sum it up best in their Education Pays report when they reported “that post-secondary education pays off very well, both in dollars and in improvements to quality of life”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tagged In: Career , Planning , Success Strategies , Transition