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).

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.

This research report focuses on a growing group of un- and underemployed youth, Poorly Integrated New Entrants (PINEs).  PINEs are young people who often have qualifications (diplomas or degrees); but who frequently go back and forth between temporary jobs, unemployment and/or inactivity, even during periods of strong economic growth (OECD, 2010).  The report examines what the literature says about them and their barriers to labour market attachment from a global and Canadian perspective.  It investigates what works in terms of policies and programs to mitigate their growth, includes a preliminary inventory of national and international programs and policies that target those who are or who are at-risk of becoming PINEs and, finally, provides an analysis of the inventory leading to the development of policy and program recommendations to stem the growth of PINEs in Canada.