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In early November, the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta held its 2016 policy convention and leadership forum. Candidates took to the microphone to discuss many issues, including education.

It was brought up there, as it often is, that Alberta has among the highest dropout rates in Canada.

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The discussion of high school completion rates inevitably revolves around the widely believed myth that high wages in the oil and gas industry lure students away. The message that oil prices are the driving factor of high school dropout rates is perpetuated without any in-depth examination, unchallenged as a truth beyond our control.

Failure to recognize other factors has kept Albertans from addressing our notoriously low high school completion rates.

A university degree is certainly not needed to acquire gainful employment in the oilpatch, but oil and gas jobs still require skilled labour — labour that, in prosperous times, arrives in droves from other provinces.