Is a University Degree a Waste of Money?

[Music] all these people with degrees we feel desperate we want to feel fulfilled we want to feel it we're needed I'm concerned about the future in terms of that gig economy and the lack of benefits I feel that the huge problem every job should allow people to build a life instead of scrambling from one form of employment to another we owe that to becoming generation this is a story about a promise the one that says if you work hard get a post-secondary education you'll end up with a good and stable job we've all heard it in fact I find myself repeating it to my own kids the question is is that problem is broken that's we're going to try to find out [Music] yeah that's 21 year old Christian McRaven ow he wishes he didn't have time to walk the dog these days after all he feels like he did his part good grades in high school four years of university and a degree in mechanical engineering he chose in part because he thought it would land him a job I actually thought that coming out of school that I would be a commodity that somebody would want me and that somebody would want to mold somebody and teach them skills and and turn them into a professional engineer but instead I got hit with a wall of not being wanted whatsoever in the industry since graduating nine months ago Christian says he's applied for 260 engineering jobs he's had four interviews zero offers now he's just trying to get anything at all even retail I applied since Beartown which is just around the corner here Sport Chek staple Sophie's Home Hardware Akbar and farm boy the mechanical engineer you applied to so B's yeah to work as a deli slicer how come because it's available job something at least to keep me a little bit preoccupied I guess something feels accomplished from you know as much as an engineer can be accomplished by cutting deli meat Christian's overqualified for so beef and on the other hand it's hard to land an engineering job when your most recent experiences sales associated winners where did you think he'd be at this point in your life hopefully working for a robotics company or an engineering company starting my life as an adult but instead I'm unemployed living with my parents what you like to say that depressing not being employed while having a degree kind of a kick in the face if anything is a setback get all the debt and the degree and everyone everyone does it that doesn't necessarily get you further in life sometimes still Christian keeps looking for work now if he gets one of the retail jobs he'll achieve one of the hallmarks of his generation underemployment a whopping 27 percent of Canadian youth have that distinction and among engineers in Ontario is 33 percent that's the reality and yet Christian says what he often hears is that it's his own fault so Millennials the idea is that we're lazy and we don't work hard and stuff it's given to us you know the idea of the participation award was invented we didn't want the participation award we didn't want to be told that we're not good enough but here's an award anyways we want to compete we want to we want to exceed [Music] now if we fast forward a few years in the lifecycle of today's job market and come to Claire Parker at 26 Claire has already been working for a few years she has a political science degree and a college diploma in public relations I learned an apartment I have three roommates and I don't have benefits and if I were the exception I would feel upset about that because I would feel like that something that I had done wrong but I'm not the exception I'm the norm Claire's reality is that her main job isn't enough to make ends meet so she also works at a yoga studio and houses I joked with my friends all the time about the Millennial side hustle like we all have different side hustles that we do to get money on the side in different areas and that gig life that people are living now so many people who would have worked in health for a company before our freelancing now side hustles no security these are really part of the promise that's drilled into young people the promise that a university degree is a ticket to a stable job and a good life if you get a toothache now and you're 24 years old you freak out you lose because that's going to be like a couple grand you go into the dentist for the first time you have to do the initial bit like really expensive and that stuff racks up really really quickly I think that you're going to see a lot of people who feel disenfranchised by the workforce and uncared-for by the workforce Claire's hopeful the things will get better especially since she landed a one-year contract at halo brewery in Toronto Claire tells me she's excited her bosses have even discussed giving her benefit five years of education get all that how do you feel about your future now good I feel good now I think everybody everybody no matter where you're at in your life wakes up sometimes and they're just like oh failure and this sucks right everybody feels that but overwhelmingly and working for a company that I feel very strongly about that I have a good relationship with leave everything on top I'll get one of every one of our guys to teach you 15 coming in for your table hit it from the outside people would say you're a bartender yeah for sure yeah yeah you did yes your server yes 100% well you don't see it that way you know a little bit a little bit but I think anybody who is were I definitely I mean on paper on a bartender but I think that anybody who has worked with a small business before a very small business understands that it's kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation okay you have a lot of opportunities to learn a lot of different things I am a bartender I wouldn't consider that to be a bad thing right yeah you consider yourself under employee no no I'm not under employed and I kind of get offended when people say that I am underemployed because it implies that they know more about my situation than I know about my situation it implies that just the title means more than what's actually going on in the workplace and what it's issued assumption hey Claire probably could have got her job without five years of post-secondary education but she says it's her education that will allow her to grow with the brewery Claire is banking on potential her own and the company this is what passes for job security and Clara's life if you head to any Canadian University it's easy to see that the promise of higher education is pretty good business there are more University students than ever before higher education is the new normal so how many of you have heard of the nature-nurture debate kimberly ella tail has been teaching at Laurier University in Waterloo Ontario for 20 years no her first year sociology class is on the front lines of the promise with a good education you'll have a good future with a good education you'll have a good job how accurate you think that that unwritten promises I think for past generations it may have been I think for future generations it's not a guarantee it absolutely is a guarantee the way that employment is changing it is moving towards greater precarity so that you can be swapped in and out and i think that the people that we have in universities right now the young people many of them don't see that if they're live that might be somebody else but that will be me I'm going to get that job not everybody's going to get that and increasingly it will be fewer and fewer who dance Kimberly knows what she's talking about because she lives it she doesn't have the good secure job even though she's been teaching the university courses at Laurier since 1998 and contract faculty so that means that I apply every four month thereabouts for my job so I want you to think about your I have very little job security I am one of those contract workers that are our new approach to employment is going to be turned out make sure being precariously employed takes its toll when you don't have benefits and and your children need prescriptions you pay the full cost and I have stood in the pharmacy trying to decide which of my children needed the antibiotic the most because I couldn't afford to purchase both of them and how do you live with that I teach in a university I teach in a place that sells education as the path to a better more secure life and I don't have a part of that life and contract faculty don't and yet that's exactly the kind of employment that's growing in Canada most of the jobs that have been created in recent years are part-time if this trend continues what do you think it means for the rest of Canada I think we're going to have a we're going to have groups of young people who are going to be very disappointed in what the future holds given their investment in preparing for if after four years of studying and all that money you end up with a job you could have got at a high school well something's broken so what to do well at the University of Regina they're trying to do something that kind of sounds crazy well they made the promise into a guarantee if a student doesn't get a full-time job in their field within six months of graduation they can come back for a free year meet 21 year old Jenna - both my name is Jenna I am a fourth year education student so I'm in my last semester how are you feeling about graduating I'm so excited I can't wait to actually get out there and have a job really all I've been thinking about this semester is having a job so you always wanted to be a teacher since I was in grade two I was always a person who would stand up in front of my classmates and my friends and pretend you know the meter stick pointing at the board and the Jenna's dream of becoming a teacher almost fell apart she's from a small town and when she arrived in Regina she was overwhelmed I'm terrified I was absolutely terrified to be on campus because for me even though Regina is a small city for me it was huge and for my first semester I kind of just hid out and then my kind of people I lived with for like you should you know get out there and talk to people in school it was the University of Regina guarantee program that helps Janna break out of her shell they got her to network to volunteer they supported her the program also taught Jenna the skills you need to get a job Thanks before we get started I want to learn a little bit from each of you hi my name is Katrina next course I am a first year nursing student and I'm taking the seminar to get a job more in my field I'm not just technical 120 students have gone through the you are guarantee program since it started back in 2009 it seems to work but only to have come back for a free year so no matter what stage you're at look back and critically reflect on the experiences that we've accumulated to our academic year so while a job has always been the unwritten promise of university it was up to the students to actually find it what the Regina model does is shift some of the responsibility onto the school still Jenna knows that doesn't make it easy are you nervous about getting out there in the world of work a hundred percent I'm nervous about it what if you don't find a job well I'm gonna keep trying this is something that I'm passionate about I always want to work with kids and whether that looks like being a classroom teacher being an assistant in the classroom being a librarian whatever it is I know I want to work with kids and I've made sure that I have skills that will help me no matter where I go and the number one thing that they were looking for was the technical and analytical skills it's no secret that every generation has its challenges getting into the workforce but right now there's as much uncertainty as ever and here's the thing if today's youth don't make it in there hope runs out those are high stakes stay tuned the next Canada Nick burden CBC News Toronto [Music]

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 1,514,682

Keywords: national, The National, cbc news, cbcnews, University of Regina, employment, unemployment, job guarantee, nick purdon, university, university degree

Id: uugCRJXQXW0

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/NegScenePts]

The issue is that the youth of Canada are being told that they ALL need university, when that's simply not the case. Some people will NOT thrive in an academic environment, so they just give up.

University is good for some, but not for all. There are people out there who are much better at working with their hands, and they're being discouraged from following that path due to the stigma of 'blue collar'. I have a buddy who did Computer Science in Uni, but hated it. He became an Ironworker and now makes double what he would have made in the IT field. He's MUCH happier too.

[u/Namorath82]

i dont use my university degree (History) in my profession

but i dont regret getting it at all and many of the skills i learned in university help me alot in my field now (I work for a renewable energy company)

[u/Surax]

Here's something I'm curious about. What are high school students being told today? I know when I was in high school, we were encouraged to go to university. But that was 15 years ago. What are students being told today?

[u/Lupinfujiko]

Great video.

The Millennial Side Hustle

She nails it with this one. It feels like everyone these days has a little "side hustle" going on these days.

The issue is complicated and convoluted.

Convoluted, because what is our goal here? That all university graduates get jobs regardless of their skills? Doesn't that only help the ultra rich and those willing to take on large debt in order to achieve employability?

Complicated because it draws from many factors. For one, we're all increasingly living in the same living space. We're all living in big cities; necessarily for employment but expensive leading to more competition with each other (driving down wages), and with further societal problems going forward.

There isn't much upward mobility in today's job market.

Even if you make more money, it means paying more money for your living situation.

We all live such social, inter connected lives. It's so easy to find someone in a better situation to you, which leads to the illusion of failure even if you are actually doing okay.

Blue Collar work is looked down upon in our society. So is retail, barista, store clerk. But why? People need to do those jobs. What's wrong with those jobs?

Well, it is hard to raise a family on those jobs. So there's that. But I feel like a paradigm shift in thinking would be beneficial here. Take pride in your retail job. Do it well. When we see someone in a retail job, we need to start seeing that less as a "failure" and more of a "choice".

Anyway, it's tough right now. No don't about it.

Higher Education has become big business.

This is something that has to be discussed as well.

That's really what's keeping this machine going. Banks love university, because it automatically puts someone into debt for a good portion of their lives. Governments love university, because banks do, and because university education looks good from an administrative level.

So yes. Some of us are getting duped here. The answer isn't forcing more employment (which is impossible anyway). It's some people shouldn't go into university, not get into crippling debt, take a blue collar job, and feel validated and proud in that job.

That's the answer. Easier said than done.

[u/Jex117]

Over Christmas dinner my Grandpa talked about his first apartment, and his first real job, making $1 an hour, paying $25 a month in rent. Me, my dad, and my brother all paused, looked at each other, and realized how skewed it is now. My rent is 40% of my income; I affectionately refer to my 2nd cheque every month as my rent cheque. It takes me nearly 2 weeks to make my rent, whereas it too my grandpa just under 3 days to make his.

I work in a factory where it's about 50:50 split, between old guys and young guys. The old guys all have houses, and the young guys all rent. It's so black & white when we leave for the day - the old guys turn right, towards the residential neighborhood, and the young guys turn left, towards the downtown apartment blocks.

I've worked alongside college grads and university grads throughout my blue collar career. A coworker gave me shit for poking fun at my friend at the company for having a rich mom - my defense was, what's the difference? We all ended up here anyways, broke with no hope of retirement.

[u/[deleted]]

Dude... for the love of God... unless you're applying to a programming company, TAKE STARCRAFT OFF YOUR RESUME. FFS it is his TOP spot in experience. If I'm hiring, that resume goes thrown immediately in the trash unless this is directly related to the job applying for.

[u/[deleted]]

No, but it depends how you use it. Degrees are a foot in the door, and it's your ability to market yourself and your work experience that makes the difference between getting a job vs not.

[u/Berephus]

Not really.

I have two left hands. I hate the trades, and I hate that type of work environment. And on days like today, when it's -37 with the windchill, I'm really glad I worked hard and have a nice cushy job in a heated office. I know my strengths, and they're not in trades. However, that's just me. If trades are your thing, go for it. Not everybody needs to go to college.

This isn't for everybody, but I don't regret going to university. It did take me a while to land a good paying job, but my days are low stress, I get good benefits and I don't have to work in some god forsaken isolated town in northern Alberta. I also know some people who would probably kill themselves out of boredom if they had my job. It all depends on your individual strengths.

[u/bign00b]

Personally I wish we treated university like it used to be - a place for higher learning, with the only goal to learn interesting things. Not a hoop to jump through to get any non minimum wage job.

Colleges, Tradeschools, etc. should really be the focus for many of the types of jobs employers are after and focus on more hands on job applicable skills being taught by people who have worked in industry. I'm willing to bet a lot of engineers (or more the types of jobs many engineers end up doing) could be trained in a more condensed college program. That's certainly true of software developers.

Let universities focus on what they are good at: theoretical, learning to learn, and the skills needed to become a academic.