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At the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton, only 20% of students are directly out of high school, reports president and chief executive, Glenn Feltham. Of the remaining 80%, half have prior post-secondary experience.

The overabundance of general degree graduates in Canada has led to dismal underemployment figures, Ms. Bell explains. “What statistics don’t tell you is that the system is churning out more BAs than we can possibly absorb. In fact, OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] ranks Canada as No. 2 in underemployment of youth. Only Spain is ahead at 50%.”

This suggests a large number of Canadian youth are getting jobs for which they are overqualified. “That’s not something to be proud of,” she says. “We should be asking ourselves, is that really the best we can do in Canada?”

The Scandinavian countries, Germany, Switzerland and Australia have produced much better employment outcomes. Ironically, these are also regions where the number of students graduating with university degrees is far lower (typically 20% to 30% depending on the country).

The strength of their education systems lies in the fact that the role of employers is infused in the educational process so career pathways are explicitly apparent, she says. To that end, they are very much involved in training and curriculum development. “The focus is on a more direct link to the labour market, so it’s not so heavily weighted on the university system.