The following is an exerpt from the Canadian Policy Research Network e-newsletter of April 5, 2007. For those who have been participants in my workshops on Careers and Employment in the Arts, read on...

High School – Building the Pathway to a Good Job

April 5, 2007 – A new report from CPRN has found that governments could be doing much more to help young people get on the right path to a good job. The report, Pathways for Youth to the Labour Market: An Overview of High School Initiatives, looks at programs and policies that help or hinder young people in finding rewarding work. Four provinces were studied: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland/Labrador. Information from the State of Queensland, Australia is also included to allow international comparison.

The OECD has long recognized that getting young people from school to work usually involves a well-organized pathway that offers opportunities to mix work with school – and that provides good information, guidance and a strong safety net for those at risk.

But the report found that while all provincial governments in the study expressed a commitment to doing more in the area of school-to-work transition, the actual initiatives tended to be local, and therefore fragmented or piecemeal with uneven financial support. And when initiatives do exist, too often there is low participation. According to the report, the federal government, like the provinces, is sporadic and short-term in its funding support.

Some of the trends identified by the author, Alison Taylor, include:

• three of the four provinces studied have high school apprentice programs, but with low and mostly male participation
• British Columbia and Ontario allow high school students to earn post-secondary and/or industry certification, but again participation is low
• provinces are struggling to update technology curricula and to hire qualified teachers
• data on student outcomes is scarce and not easily comparable across jurisdictions
• few students are involved in off-campus career-related training – despite an express commitment by provinces to do more

The report found evidence from other countries that indicates governments play an important role in school-to-work transition programs. For example, more employers are likely to participate in workplace experience initiatives, and the quality of the programs is likely to be higher, when supported by institutional arrangements put in place by governments, rather than left to the individual school or firm.

To read Pathways for Youth to the Labour Market: An Overview of High School Initiatives, go to http://www.cprn.org/en/doc.cfm?doc=1643.