According to a recent CBC article, a sudden trend of students leaving the province to find work after graduation is leaving “gaping holes in some NB communities.”
Though universities in the province are frantically trying to keep their young and talented at home, the lack of work available is sending students to find employment in other areas of the country. The problem isn’t the unavailability of jobs as a whole, but the fact that too many people are training for positions that no longer need to be filled.
The issue seems to be stemming from a theory explored in a report by Rick Miner, a former College president, entitled “People without Jobs, Jobs without People.” Miner says that even though Canadian institutions are producing a great deal of educated people, they aren’t being trained to work in industries that need them the most.
According to the Van City Buzz, “Canada currently has a stronger demand for people with trade skills rather than basic undergraduate credentials.” And yet the degrees keep coming.
According to the Van City Buzz, 43 to 51 per cent of grads are employed in positions that don’t require one. Canada’s low-wage sector is massive, despite the fact that the workforce is becoming increasingly more educated.
We’ve got too many people studying for the same profession and not enough looking to train for positions that need to be filled. The ultimate cause of many people leaving the province may be because they can’t find work, but the problem overall covers a broader spectrum. To say that there isn’t enough work would be overlooking the obvious.
There are enough well-paying jobs in the province to employ everyone; the problem is that no one explores the market completely. Maclean’s On Campus says, “there are too many people going to university.”
Too many students are under the impression that these institutions of “higher learning” are the only way to achieve success. Today, many know that that is not the case, especially with the influx of high school grads enrolling in trades programs, but the stigma attached to university remains.
Robert MacKinnon, the vice-president of UNBSJ told CBC “we need to be working more closely with our private and public sector partners to find creative ways of keeping our students here in New Brunswick.”
There could be many solutions to this issue, but the long-fought battle over how we should create more jobs for unemployed graduates may need to be re-vamped. University is becoming the latest trend; too many people are hopping on the bandwagon and the province is really feeling the consequences.