Over the Edge * March 13th 2013

News 5

LIFE AFTER GRADUATION: HOW VALUABLE IS A DEGREE THESE DAYS?

FORGET IT BRO. I'VE BEEN

HERE 3 YEARS | AND HAVE A PHD.

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APPLICNTION —— ge

2012 COLLEGE GRADUATES FACE BLEAK JOB MARKET

HANNA PETERSEN

NEWS EDITOR

Most undergraduate students have heard jokes about arts students serving fries after graduation and the theories of degree inflation. The rumour goes that an undergraduate education is no longer valuable because it is a much more common accomplishment than it was, say, twenty years ago. But what is it really like out there for this generation of twenty-somethings? What lies beyond the comfortable walls of post-secondary education?

Rob Carrick, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, addressed this issue last May in an article entitled “2012 vs. 1984 : Do young adults really have it harder today?” where he compared his experiences of young adulthood in the eighties to the realities of kids today. Carrick paints a picture of relatively cheap tuition that could be easily afforded with the help of a summer job and realistic employment opportunities waiting for students upon graduation. “I had it easier than today’s twenty somethings and I have no problem saying so,” notes Carrick. “But quite a few others can’t see what all the fuss is about when it comes to the financial concerns of young adults.” Carrick’s brief observations in this article just skimmed the surface of the realities of some young adults currently in the job market. An anonymous letter written in response to Carrick’s article was posted on the Globe and Mail and soon made the rounds on the internet. The twenty- nine year-old writer described a job market so competitive that sending out 100 to 200 resumes a month proved to be a_ continual disappointment. “Being willing to work is absolutely useless if you can’t get your foot in the door,” writes the anonymous respondent. “T’m not the only person in this situation but the job challenges of young adults are not something that gets talked about. You’ ll read about it in the New York times and the Globe and Mail now and then but people don’t talk about it.”

Chris Sorensen and Charlie Gills of Maclean’s Magazine also recently addressed this issue but with an even bleaker outlook than the responses given to Carrick’s column. Their article is entitled “The New Underclass: Why

a Generation of well-educated Canadians have no future”. They claim that in the U.S., Europe, and yes, Canada, young adults “increasingly find themselves wandering the perimeters of their chosen careers” because most young adults are actually working below their qualifications and even outside their chosen fields. Sorensen and Gills state that “labour-market experts refer to this as underemployment - a gross mismatch between people’s skills and the jobs employers wish to fill”.

This is the “result of a growing pool of well-

educated twenty-somethings scrapping it out for a limited number of prize positions.” Sorensen and Gills also conclude that the job market today contradicts the current system. “Tt all goes against the narrative thats been drilled into young Canadians over the past few decades: a university education is the ticket to a good job and a comfortable existence.” Even those who are able to find a job in their chosen careers are saddled with student debt and “face a world where buying a house seems like an improbable dream.” What’s really intriguing though, is that despite this common narrative of youth struggling to get a foothold into the job market, B.C. has recently claimed there will be an oncoming shortage in skilled and educated workers.

Based on the Provincial government’s labour market outlook, the The Research University Council of BC (RUBC) identified that the number of jobs requiring a post-secondary credential will exceed the available supply of graduated beginning in 2016, a skills deficit that will grow to at least 2020.

The RUBC say that by 2020, approximately 18,800 jobs will go unfilled because British Columbians lack the necessary education and training. Government of BC data indicates that 8,400 of these jobs will require a university degree; 8,100 will require a college credential, and 2,300 trades training. So does this mean an end to the post-graduate uncertainty facing many twenty somethings today, at least in BC?

“Tt’s a cruel irony for frustrated young job seekers,” write Sorensen and Gills, “that Canada is actually in the grip of a massive

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labour shortage. The problem seems to be a wide gap in-between what people want to study and the skills that are in need. “The culprit, according to business leaders, is three decades of parents and teachers extolling the virtues of a university degree, encouraging youth to become doctors, lawyers or teachers. “Meanwhile, the economy has been busy stamping out new jobs in all sorts of industries,” claim Sorensen and Gills.

“This provincial skills deficit will be exacerbated in our region because the BC labour market outlook predicts that two of the three regions in BC with the fastest rate of employment growth are in Northern BC,” says UNBC President George Iwama. “This is why UNBC is an enthusiastic participant in this effort with other universities, together with our ongoing collaboration with the northern colleges. We must provide spaces, encourage participation, support innovation, and broaden the programming we deliver. It’s critical for our region and it’s critical for our province.”

Whether things get a little more promising for twenty-somethings or not, the traditional route to a comfortable middle class lifestyle seems to be changing. It may not be correct that twenty somethings are an underclass waiting around in dead end jobs, but instead they might be a generation that will have to be as innovative as the era they live in or they will simply have to be prepared for a few years of hardship.