Canada's universities are pleased to see postsecondary education emerge as a hot topic in the early days of this federal election campaign. The Liberal announcement of their proposed "Learning Passport" sparked a widespread discussion this week about the best way to open the doors of higher education to more students. Improving accessibility and quality are complex issues that warrant a robust national debate.Globe columnist Margaret Wente offered a particularly cynical and misguided view of the value of university education in her column of March 31. While she shared with us the happy news that there's lots of work for her hair colourist, her argument that we should have fewer, not more young people getting a university education flies in the face of current labour market research.
Let's take a look at what happened during the recession. Between 2008 and 2010 there were 125,000 jobs lost in trades occupations in Canada compared to 300,000 new jobs created for university graduates. If we take a longer view, we see that since 2004 there were 110,000 more jobs in trades occupations, compared to 995,000 more for university graduates. It is no wonder that students are responding to labour market signals by enrolling in universities in greater numbers right across Canada.
