All Posts Tagged With: "graduate"
The fast track
For some students, four years of undergrad is too much
Photo by Cole Garside
From the 21st Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Richard Warnica.
Shawn Alavi, who graduated from McMaster University in 2006, was 21 when he landed his first engineering job. Today, at 26, he’s a certified engineer—a P.Eng. in the jargon—with years of professional experience, money in the bank and a settled career. “Getting out of school earlier meant I was able to clear my debts earlier,” he says. “Now I’m just saving for my future, deciding on my next step.”
In engineering, Alavi found a profession that allowed him to enter the workforce after just four years of school and to achieve his professional certification through paid experience. “I’ve been working for almost five years now,” he says. “I’ve been able to get my life on track a little quicker than most.”
Tuition rebates don’t keep graduates, jobs do
But that doesn’t make a very good campaign slogan
Nova Scotia is having a provincial election which means politicians of all stripes are taking out half-baked ideas and promising the world.
A popular half-baked idea across the country these days is tuition rebates for recent graduates who stay in a province or, in the case of Saskatchewan, move to another province.
Lenore Zann, an NDP candidate in the NS election, tells The Truno Daily News that she is confident the NDP’s rebate plan will keep recent graduates in the province.
Sure, it will. Where graduates end up is in no way related to where they can find well-paying jobs with their degrees.
Post-secondary education pays: StatsCan
Largest difference in earnings was between bachelor’s and master’s degrees
A new study suggests it pays to go to school.
The Statistics Canada survey found that more than 80 per cent of college and university students who graduated in 2005 and did not pursue further studies had found full-time employment by 2007, while earnings generally increased by level of study.
A higher proportion of graduates with a master’s degree were working full time than college graduates or those with a bachelor’s degree or a doctorate.
The pool of graduates with a master’s was higher in 2005 than it was in 2000 for both men and women.
However, the employment rate among master’s graduates remained stable for men at 94 per cent, while it rose for women, to 92 per cent in 2007 from 89 per cent in 2002.
Findings also showed differences in earnings from one level of education to another, with the largest earnings gap existing between the bachelor’s and master’s levels.
The agency says the earnings gap between a master’s and doctorate suggests that the monetary gain from employment two years after graduation for doctorate students is marginal.
About half the 2005 graduates who did not pursue further education financed their post-secondary studies without taking on any education-related loans. Nearly half (46 per cent) of all 2005 bachelor’s graduates completed their studies debt-free, as did 56 per cent of doctorates, 55 per cent of college grads and 54 per cent of those with a master’s.
While relatively similar proportions of college, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate graduates were able to find work two years after graduation, there were differences in terms of their earnings.
The median annual earnings among those working full time in 2007 was lowest for college graduates at $35,000. This increased to $45,000 for bachelor’s graduates, $60,000 for master’s graduates and $65,000 for doctorate graduates.
- The Canadian Press
Earnings of private career college graduates
Nearly 60 per cent of grads say post-college job pays better than their previous one
The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation has released a report of a recently completed survey of graduates of private career colleges in Canada.
Among employed graduates, 59% noted that their current job paid better than the previous job they held. A further 20% said their job paid as well as their previous one and 17% reported that their income was lower than it was in their previous job.
The report notes that the average income of graduates of career college was $26,727. This finding would appear to lend further credence to the existing evidence that private career college graduates earn roughly the same as high school graduates.
The available data from the 2006 Census indicates that individuals holding a certificate or diploma below the bachelors level earned an average of $30,512 in 2005, so the average earnings of private career college graduates would appear to be quite a bit below that of individuals with sub-baccalaureate credentials.
While comparable data are not available from the 2006 Census, according to data from the 2001 Census individuals with a high school diploma and/or some post-secondary education earned $25,477 in 2000.
An important question with this group is whether or not graduates of private career colleges would be as likely to be employed had they not completed a private career college credential.
Ontario to create 3,300 new graduate spaces
More than $50m targeted at high-demand programs, like engineering and environment
Ontario says it’s committing $51.6 million to add some 3,300 graduate spaces at its universities over the next few years.
The government says the investment will enable more students to study in high-demand sectors such as engineering and environmental studies.
The money, from the $6.2-billion Reaching Higher program, will create 1,925 new master’s spaces and 1,373 new PhD spaces.
Ontario’s seven largest research universities will receive about 75 per cent of the new spots.
The University of Toronto will get the most with 588, followed by the University of Western Ontario with 504.
According to government estimates, seven out of 10 new jobs created in Ontario over the next decade will require post-secondary education or training.
“Ontario’s highly skilled workforce is our province’s greatest asset,” Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities John Milloy said in a release.
“By helping more Ontarians pursue higher education, we can strengthen our economy and attract the kind of jobs and investment that will build prosperity for all Ontario families.”
Here is a list of universities slated to receive the spaces and the allotments:
University of Toronto – 588
University of Western Ontario – 504
University of Waterloo – 461
McMaster University – 338
University of Ottawa – 277
Ryerson University – 289
University of Guelph – 232
York University – 168
Queen’s University – 97
University of Ontario Institute of Technology – 97
Wilfrid Laurier University – 68
Carleton University – 67
Lakehead University – 49
Laurentian University – 33
Trent University – 26
Ontario College of Art and Design – 6
University of Windsor – 4
- The Canadian Press
