SAY Magazine’s 2014 Back2school Issue, Focusing on the Connection Between Education/Employment/Earnings is Now Available

SAY MAGAZINE’S 2014 BACK2SCHOOL ISSUE, FOCUSING ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EDUCATION/EMPLOYMENT/EARNINGS IS NOW AVAILABLE

A recent television commercial states that it is estimated that by 2017 one million Aboriginal workers will be available in Canada. But will they be employable? This SAY issue addresses the question by…Read More

SAY’s 2014 Back2School Issue

A recent television commercial states it is estimated that by 2017 one million Aboriginal workers will be available in Canada. But will they be employable? The SAY 2014 Back2School issue addresses the question by focusing on the connections between Education/Employment/Earnings.

One of the reasons our Native students drop out of high school is due to not understanding these connections.

The Institut C.D. HOWE Institute, April 2014 commentary NO. 408 states the following:

“The evidence on Aboriginal education from the National Household Survey (NHS) that accompanied the 2011 census shows that young adults aged 20-24 at the time of the census, who identified as North American Indian/First Nation and were living off-reserve, and those who identified as Métis, had considerably lower rates of incomplete secondary studies in 2011 than at the time of the previous census in 2006.

The good news needs to be qualified. First, the incomplete secondary studies statistic for the off-reserve Indian/FN population is still three times the rate for young non-Aboriginals (30 percent relative to 10 percent) and the Métis rate is twice as high (20 percent relative to 10 percent).

The second and more serious qualification is that the rate of incomplete secondary studies remains extremely high (58 percent) for young Indian/FN living on-reserve, and has declined little since 2006.”

These numbers are shocking, although slowly improving. Blame is placed on teachers, students, parents, community and economics, but solutions are few.

The competition for jobs has never been higher, with more than half (56 per cent) of employers saying they are concerned about the growing skills gap, and 46 per cent believe there is a significant gap between the skills their organization needs and the skills job candidates have, according to a 2013 CareerBuilder.ca survey. Thirty-seven per cent say they currently have open positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates, up from 25 per cent last year.

The key word is ‘qualified’.

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About SAY Magazine
SAY Magazine, in its twelfth year of operation, a professional, informative, contemporary, independent and reputable Native owned and operated publication, is recognized as The Number One Resource for and about contemporary Native issues.

Contact: Leslie Lounsbury, Publisher, 204.228.9695 or leslie@saymag.com