Alberta Post-Secondary Education: Does it Pay Off?
- September 24, 2016
- By Cody Battershill
Does Post-Secondary Education Help You Get a Job in Alberta?
Does getting a post-secondary education pay off when it comes to finding a job?
It may cost you tens of thousands of dollars to put yourself through a post-secondary program in Alberta, but according to the according to ATB Financial’s The Owl, it is well worth it!
Just over 80 percent of working age Albertans were employed in 2014 but this statistic doesn’t show the differences between those with various educational accomplishments.
Here’s what has been found about the association between different levels of education and adult employment (ages 25 to 64) in our province.
- See 10 Reasons to Love Living in Alberta today.
Employment Rate of Albertans by Educational Level Obtained (2014)
- Pre-primary and primary education (Grade 1 to 8) – 59 percent
- Lower secondary (Grade 9 & 10) – 70 percent
- High school (Grade 10 to 12) – 77 percent
- All levels of education – 81 percent
- Post-secondary below bachelor’s – 83 percent
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent – 84 percent
- Master’s degree and above – 85 percent
- Apprenticeship / diploma / trades certificate – 87 percent
What can we infer from this data?
The higher the level of education, the more likely you will be employed after graduation or if you apply to a field in high-demand within the trades (and most are), then you should be okay!
However, with the current economy, there is no guarantee that third and fourth year students in various post-secondary programs across the province will get their internships, practicums or be hired once they graduate.
Let’s keep in mind that the economy is always in flux, and once it begins to climb upward the demand for jobs in various sectors all over Alberta should begin to boom again – assuming that our political climate also does its fair share to stimulate employment growth.
- See these 5 Things to Do at Mount Royal University today.
A good time to be in school
Actually, now is the perfect time to be investing in a post-secondary education with good long-term job prospects.
With unemployment rates in Alberta at record levels as of late (at 8.4 percent in August 2016, up from 6.1 percent year-over-year), and no end in sight to the economic turmoil that we’ve experienced over the past few years, there’s no telling how many more lay-offs there will be as a result.
This is especially true for Alberta’s energy sector which accounts for more than a quarter of the provinces economy and employs over 200,000 people. It has already seen more than 40,000 layoffs as of April 2016 and since then, thousands, if not tens of thousands more.
The moral of the story? Investing in a post-secondary educational field while job opportunities are down across nearly all industries is never a bad idea!
I Love Alberta
It's only a matter of time until Alberta, Canada's economic engine, bounces back from the slump it's currently in!
See more interesting economic articles relating to Calgary, Alberta and Western Canada as a whole here and we hope to see you back for more sometime soon!
