All Posts Tagged With: "graduate employment rate"
Ontario’s recession-era grads did alright
High employment rates. Steady wages.
One of the biggest surveys that gauges how university graduates have fared in the workplace was published this week and the results show that university is still a very good bet for most people.
The figures come from a survey of nearly 20,000 graduates from Ontario’s class of 2008, courtesy of the Council of Ontario Universities. Despite the global recession that has hampered employment since 2008, nearly 19 out of 20 graduates (93.8 per cent) were in jobs by 2010.
83.5 per cent of their jobs were somewhat or closely related to their fields of study, higher than usual.
The jobs paid well too, $49,469 on average, which is slightly higher than the median income for all Canadians. (Remember, these students were only two years into their careers.) But pay is stagnant. In fact, it was slightly higher for 2004 and 2006 graduates two years after their convocations.
URegina offers free classes for unemployed grads
If grads can’t land jobs in their field within six months, school will pay for year of courses
Guarantees usually come when you buy things like a TV or maybe a car, but a Saskatchewan university is offering one for something different – an education.
The University of Regina has launched a guarantee program for students who can’t find a job in their field within six months of graduation. Under the plan, students can take another year of courses and the school will foot the bill for tuition.
The university says the guarantee is the first program of its kind at a Canadian university.
“It almost seems like a free insurance policy. You don’t have to pay anything into it and you’re guaranteed to get something out of it,” says Kyle Addison, a business administration student and president of the University of Regina Students’ Union.
The program will officially be up and running next September, but any student who started university this fall can apply for it.
Like any guarantee, there are rules that apply.
Barb Pollock, vice-president of external relations at the U of R, says among other things, students will have to maintain a 70 per cent average, take an active role in campus life and get career counselling to prepare for the job market.
“The whole idea is to not only help you maintain a successful path in your academics but to expose you and make you marketable, employable,” says Pollock.
“It also, there’s no doubt, could have a beneficial effect for us in recruitment. But the reason for it for us is the idea about getting students involved and engaged in the university from the get-go, the minute they walk in the door, so that they have a greater chance for success at the end of their program.”
