This report extends Future in Focus by examining current strengths and gaps in the systems supporting public to post-secondary transitions. Based on existing Atlantic assets and opportunities and national/international best practice, clear and concrete recommendations to strengthen post-secondary uptake, retention and successful student transition beyond post-secondary to the labour market were articulated.

CCDF was commissioned by RBC to conduct an analysis of applications to its Career Launch Program for the first three years of its operation. The research within the report is based on a random sample of approximately 5,800 applications submitted during the three years that the RBC Career Launch Program has been accepting new graduates into paid internship positions. The applications received from recent post-secondary graduates (24 years old or younger) provided data on applicants’ education, work and volunteer history and, in the essay portion of the application, their perspectives on what can be done to improve school-to-work transitions in Canada.

The Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF) undertook this scoping review to examine how to support better school-to-work transitions for youth – those who had left school prior to graduation, who went directly to the labour market after high school graduation and those who had graduated from a PSE program. The main objectives of this project were to identify what is needed to improve school-to-work transitions of Canadian youth and identify research/programming/policy gaps for future project considerations.

Through this project, CCDF’s undertook four main methods of inquiry to build this scoping review:

The formation of a 12-member cross-sectoral Advisory Committee (AC) of key stakeholder representatives who advised both on the development of the project and provided input on the research, potential hypotheses, literature sources, and key informant contacts;
A literature scan of Canadian and international research related to school-to-work transitions (Literature Scan);
A survey of stakeholders (n=141) to identify the main factors contributing to poor school-to-work transitions of Canadian youth, promising practice and the identification of champions working to create bridges for better transitions for a range of youth (Survey Report); and
Interviews of 11 key informants that served as a final check on the findings from the other methods of inquiry listed above (Key Informant Interview Report).

This study was conducted in two phases:

• The first study (Phase I: 2011-2013) tested a new online data gathering tool titled PRIME (Performance Recording Instrument for Meaningful Evaluation) and demonstrated an ability to track common indicators across divergent settings and these “made sense” to all participating practitioners. It also began to uncover apparent predictors of positive employment outcomes including positive changes in learning and skill acquisition, changes in personal attributes and individual traits such as taking personal responsibility for progress. The first study provided a positive start toward addressing the core question: What kinds of interventions (programs/services) with what profiles of client characteristics and in what contexts are associated with what kinds of outcomes?
• The second study (Phase II: 2013-15) refined measures; made PRIME more efficient and easy to use; extended the client service period; examined many of the same relationships as Phase I; and added new areas of exploration, such as the types of interventions practitioners use with clients and testing of a self-help index.

CCDF conducted research and provided recommendations on the socio-economic imperatives for action in the area of career development, an environmental scan of successful programs in Atlantic Canada, and a compilation of international best practices. From this research CCDF developed recommendations that we integrated into CAMET’s Future in Focus – Atlantic Career Development Framework for Public Education.