IMPACTS OF EXPOSURE TO CAREER PLANNING (PDF)

Educational Pathways of Youth in Manitoba: IMPACTS OF EXPOSURE TO CAREER PLANNING SERVICES AND PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN LEARNING An examination of data from the Youth in Transition Survey  Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge the assistance in the preparation of this report received from Justin Bayard from the Learning Policy Directorate, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. This document is available for free in electronic format. To obtain an electronic copy please visit either of the following websites: • Canada – www.pisa.gc.ca - Publications section • Manitoba - www.edu.gov.mb.ca/ecy/ - Planning Documents section 373.12913097127 Gluszynski, Tomasz Educational Pathways of Youth in Manitoba : IMPACTS OF EXPOSURE TO CAREER PLANNING SERVICES AND PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN LEARNING : An examination of data from the Youth in Transition Survey = Les cheminements scolaires des jeunes au Manitoba : IMPACTS DE L’ACCÈS AUX SERVICES DE PLANIFICATION DE CARRIÈRE ET DE LA PARTICIPATION PARENTALE SUR L’APPRENTISSAGE : Un examen des données de l’Enquête auprès des jeunes en transition Text in English and French. ISBN-13: 978-0-7711-4166-9 1. Youth in Transition survey. 2. Youth—Education—Manitoba—Statistics- -Longitudinal studies. 3. Postsecondary Education--Manitoba—Statistics— Longitudinal studies. 4. Youth--Employment—Manitoba—Statistics—Longitudinal studies. 5. School-to-work transition—Manitoba—Statistics—Longitudinal studies. 6. Vocational guidance –Manitoba—Statistics—Longitudinal studies. 7. Education, Secondary—Parent participation—Manitoba—Statistics— Longitudinal studies. 8. Youth—Education—Canada--Statistics—Longitudinal studies 9. Postsecondary education—Canada—Statistics— Longitudinal studies. 10. Youth—Employment—Canada—Statistics--Longitudinal studies. 11. School- to-work transition—Canada--Statistics—Longitudinal studies. 12. Vocational guidance--Canada—Statistics—Longitudinal studies. 13. Education, Secondary— Parent participation—Canada—Statistics—Longitudinal studies. I. Manitoba. Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth. Research and Planning Branch. II. Manitoba MB4 Youth Division. III. Title. IV. Title : Les cheminements scolaires des jeunes au Manitoba : IMPACTS DE L’ACCÈS AUX SERVICES DE PLANIFICATION DE CARRIÈRE ET DE LA PARTICIPATION PARENTALE SUR L’APPRENTISSAGE : Un examen des données de l’Enquête auprès des jeunes en transition  Educational Pathways of Youth in Manitoba: IMPACTS OF EXPOSURE TO CAREER PLANNING SERVICES AND PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN LEARNING An examination of data from the Youth in Transition Survey by Tomasz Gluszynski Learning Policy Directorate Strategic Policy and Research Human Resources and Skills Development Canada in collaboration with Research and Planning Branch and MB4Youth Division Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth Manitoba  2 Table of Contents Section 1 INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Section 2 DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Section 3 EDUCATION AND LABOUR MARKET PATHWAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Section 4 EXPOSURE TO COUNSELLING AND EDUCATIONAL PLANNING . . . . . . . . 6 Section 5 PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL PLANNING . . . . . . . . 9 Section 6 MULTIVARIATE ANALYSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Section 7 CONCLUSIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Appendix A BIVARIATE ANALYSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Appendix B MULTIVARIATE ANALYSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19  3 Section 1 INTRODUCTION Obtaining post-secondary education in Canada has become a crucial element for a successful transition into the labour market. Among many benefits of obtaining post-secondary education are lower rates of unemployment, lower rates of long term unemployment, more job stability and higher earnings. On the societal level, workers with post-secondary education credentials exhibit higher productivity, less dependence on social assistance and higher civic engagement. The decision to pursue post-secondary education is an individual choice based on a variety of factors. Two important factors that may influence this choice are parental involvement in students’ schooling and the preparation about future careers received from counselling. These elements combine to help students determine the appropriate type of post-secondary education needed for their career choice. The objectives of this report were to examine selected data from the Youth in Transition Survey in order to: 1) Measure the extent of counselling and its effects on the decision to pursue post-secondary education. 2) Measure the extent of parental school involvement and its effects on the decision to pursue post-secondary education. The report is structured in the following way. In section two, a description of data used to produce this report is given. In section three, the transitional pathways between education and the labour market are shown for Manitoba. In section four, the exposure to education related counselling is measured. In the fifth section, the level of parental involvement in students’ educational decisions is described. In the sixth section, multivariate analyses are used to measure the impact of counselling and parental involvement on the decision to pursue post-secondary education. In the seventh section, the findings are discussed.  4 Section 2 DATA Data from the first three cycles of the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) were used in this study. YITS is a longitudinal survey through which information is collected from the same respondents in the sample every two years. The survey was first administered in 2000 to two groups of respondents – 15-year olds and 18-20-year olds. At that time, the younger group also completed a skills assessment through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Except for section 2 of this report which used data from the older cohort (18-20-year olds in 2000), the report was based on analyses of the younger cohort. YITS was specifically designed to measure transitional pathways between education and the labour market. For the younger cohort it also collected information from the students’ parents. This unique design makes it ideal to analyze the effects of school counselling and parental involvement on post-secondary education participation.  5 EDUCATIONAL AND LABOUR MARKET PATHWAYS Figure 3.1 School and labour market pathways between 2000 and 2004 – Manitoba/rest of Canada (%) Age 18-20 in 2000 Age 20-22 in 2002 Figure 3.2 School and labour market status in 2004 – Manitoba/rest of Canada (%) Age 22-24 in 2004 Section 3 Educational and labour market pathways are complex to measure. They can be linear in nature, meaning that a student enters post- secondary education straight out of high school, and following that enters the labour market. However, for a large segment of the population, the linear approach does not hold. Post-secondary education and its timing can affect the pathways. To illustrate this, Figure 3.1 presents results from the older cohort participating in YITS. In 2000, almost half of all 18-20 years old respondents in Manitoba were in education. A smaller proportion of them (42.6%) were only working, and 7.9% were not involved in these two activities. Two years later, the figures for those in education changed to 40.5% reporting to be only in education, 47% only working, and 12.5% not involved in either of the two. Many youth changed their status over the two-year period. For example, 16.0 percentage points of students who were in school in 2000 were in the labour force by 2002. Four years later, the figures changed even further as illustrated in Figure 3.2. Ensuring that students choose the most efficient pathways between education and the labour market is of benefit to themselves and society. On the personal level, an efficient pathway can maximize potential earnings and minimize potential costs associated with participation in post- secondary education. On the societal level, it maximizes productivity and also minimizes societal cost associated with providing post- secondary education. Therefore, schools and parents can be key players in ensuring that the right pathways are chosen by students. In high school 12.4/12.9 In PSE 37.1/ 44.4 Working full-time 30.6/21.4 Working part-time 12.1/11.5 In school 49.5/57.2 Not in school and working 42.6/32.9 Not in school and not working 7.9/9.8 In school 40.5/48.2 Not in school and working 47.0/37.6 Not in school and not working 12.5/14.2 In high school 1.9/1.7 In PSE 38.6/ 45.6 Working full-time 38.9/30.0 Working part-time 8.1/7.6 28.3/ 35.9 16.9/ 15.8 4.3/ 5.6 10.3/ 9.3 26.4/ 18.2 6.0/ 5.4 1.9/ 3.1 3.8/ 3.6 2.2/ 3.1 In school 28.7/31.4 Not in school and working 56.4/53.9 Not in school and not working 14.9/14.7 In high school 1.5/1.0 In PSE 27.2/ 30.4 Working full-time 48.8/45.3 Working part-time 7.6/8.6  6 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 4.1 I know enough about the different kinds of occupations that exist to make a choice about my future Agree/stongly agree Disagree/stongly disagree Not stated 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 4.2 I talked to a teacher to get information about work I might be interested in when I finish my schooling Yes No Not stated Section 4 EXPOSURE TO COUNSELLING AND EDUCATIONAL PLANNING Ensuring that students have the right information about their potential future educational and career choices is one way of facilitating efficient pathways between education and the labour market. One way of providing students with such information is counselling services. The influence of career counselling on educational planning is examined. A vast majority of Manitoba 15-year olds students (67.9%) agreed or strongly agreed when asked if they knew enough about different types of occupational choices for their future (Figure 4.1). This represented a similar proportion of respondents as in the rest of Canada (66.9%). No significant differences were noted among boys and girls, however, a slightly lower proportion of Francophone than Anglophone students (64.3% and 68% respectively) agreed with this statement. Given the high agreement that they had enough information to make an informed decision about future occupations, the source of information was considered. The majority of 15-year old students in 2000 (54.5%) reported that they did not discuss their future plans after high school completion with their teachers (Figure 4.2). This proportion was very similar to students from the rest of Canada (57.6%). Students from the Francophone school systems were least likely to have talked to their teachers about their futures, with only 28.9% doing so. Girls used teacher counselling more than boys (45.3% and 35.7% respectively).  7 About three-fourths of students from Manitoba (72%) said they had not spoken to a school counsellor to get information about work that might interest them when they finished schooling (Figure 4.3). As for students from the rest of Canada, a smaller proportion of students reported not talking to their school counsellors (64.4%). More boys had not spoken to a counsellor than girls (75.1% and 68.8% respectively). Students from the Anglophone education system were also less likely to have spoken to a counsellor, with 72.2% reporting no such activity compared to 63.3% of students from the Francophone school system. Speaking to a counsellor outside of the school about future options after finishing school was even less popular among students from Manitoba and the rest of Canada. Ninety-one percent (90.5%) reported not to have done so (Figure 4.3). No significant differences were found among boys, girls, Francophone and Anglophone students. Although the usage of counselling services outside of school was low overall, theses services were used less by students from Manitoba than the rest of Canada (22.9% and 29.6% respectively). When the three types of career counselling were combined (teachers, school and outside school counsellors), results showed in Manitoba and the rest of Canada, half of the students made use of them during their studies (Figure 4.5). A significantly higher proportion of Manitoba girls than boys reported exposure (56.6% and 42.7% respectively). The proportion of Manitoba students in the Francophone sector reporting uptake of these counselling services was lower than for the Anglophone school sector. Figure 4.3 I talked to a school counsellor to get information about work I might be interested in when I finish my schooling Yes No Not stated 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 4.4 I talked to a counsellor outside of my school to get information about work I might be interested in when I finish my schooling Yes No Not stated 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 4.5 Combined exposure to career counselling services 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba  8 In addition to counselling services about future jobs/careers, a number of curricular options were available to high school students that would give them first hand job exposure. Such experiences could provide information that would be used for career choices. Only one-out-of-ten 15-year old students (11.9%) in Manitoba reported taking a school course that allowed them to spend time with an employer (Figure 4.6). These proportions were similar for students outside of Manitoba, boys, girls, Francophone and Anglophone students. Figure 4.6 I took a school course where I spent time with an employer Yes No Not stated 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba  9 Section 5 PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL PLANNING Parental involvement in students’ educational planning is crucial for a successful transition through their schooling. In addition to help with school material, parents can provide moral support to their children. They can also motivate their children to consider suitable educational and labour market pathways. Thus, parents can support successful transitions through education which affects their children’s success in the labour market. The importance of post-secondary education was clear. Parents of students in Manitoba reported that it was very important for their child to get more education after high school (81.2%) (Figure 5.1). A slightly higher proportion of parents from the rest of Canada recognized the importance of such education for their children (87.7%). No significant differences were identified between opinions of parents of Manitoba boys, girls, Francophone and Anglophone students. Most parents of Manitoba students also held clear educational expectations for their 15-year- old children. Sixty-one percent (61.3%) expected their children to obtain a university degree, and an additional 25.8% a trade, vocational or college education (Figure 5.2). These results were not different from the rest of Canada and between parents of Francophone and Anglophone students. However, a smaller proportion of Manitoba parents expected their sons to obtain a university education (55.1% compared to 67.7% for daughters). Nevertheless, more parents of boys expected them to obtain trade, vocational or college education – offsetting the difference. Parental involvement in children’s schooling can occur in a variety of ways. It can be as simple as basic communication about school experiences and helping with school work, or staying in contact with the children’s teachers. How involved were the parents in the schooling of the 15-year-old students in 2000? Figure 5.1 How important is it to you that your child gets more education after high school? Fairly important or less Very important 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 5.2 What is the highest level of education that you hope your child will get? Highschool or less Trade vocational or college University degree or more Anything above high school Not applicable 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba  10 A majority of Manitoba parents reported having spoken daily to their child about their school experience (55.5%) – a similar proportion as for the rest of Canada (Figure 5.3). In addition, no significant differences were observed in the frequency with which the parents discussed school experience with their children among Manitoba parents of male, female, Francophone and Anglophone students. This meant that for somewhat over a majority of all students, discussing school experiences with their parents was a daily occurrence. Discussing school work with their children was another way for parents to get involved in their children’s education. A small majority of Manitoba parents (50.2%) spoke to their children on a daily basis about their school work (Figure 5.4). Again no significant differences in the frequency of these discussions were identified among all other groups compared. Interaction with teachers of their children can be ambiguous in terms of positive or negative reasons linked to their children’s education. On one hand, it can be an indication of a high level of involvement such as volunteering in extracurricular activities or attending student-parent meetings. On the other hand, student-parent interactions could be related to academic difficulties or behavioural problems. Nevertheless, a majority of Manitoba parents (53.7%) reported knowing their child’s teacher at least fairly well (Figure 5.5). This proportion was higher than for the rest of Canada (43.8%). Although no significant differences were observed among Manitoba parents of boys and girls, a much higher proportion of Francophone parents than Anglophone parents reported knowing their children’s teachers at least well (74.8% and 53.2% respectively). 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 5.3 This school year, how often have you (or your partner) talked with your child about his/her experience at school? Monthly or less Weekly Daily 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 5.4 This school year, how often have you (or your partner) discussed your child’s school work with him/her? Monthly or less Weekly Daily 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Manitoba - girls Manitoba - boys Manitoba - French Manitoba - English Rest of Canada Manitoba Figure 5.5 How well do you know the following people? One or more of child’s teachers Not very well or not at all Fairly well or very well  11 Section 6 Thus far, the results of bivariate analyses have shown that the exposure to counselling and parental involvement had a relationship to making further education and career choices. However, these results did not consider the effect of other factors that affect students’ pathways between education and the labour market. In light of exposure to counselling and parental engagement in their education, in this section results of multivariate analyses are discussed. Given that the data employed were longitudinal, the information on counselling and parental engagement at age 15 was used to explain student participation in post-secondary education at age 19 (Table 6.1). A logistic regression was employed to model the effect of key variables on whether the youth, aged 15 in 2000, undertook some form of postsecondary education in 2004. Two models were used in the multivariate analyses to measure the effects of counselling and parental engagement on students’ decisions to pursue post-secondary education. The first model looks at the overall effects of exposure to career counselling at age 15 as well as the overall parental involvement in children’s education on post-secondary education participation four years later. The second model analyzes more detailed types of career counselling and parental involvement on participation in post-secondary education at age 19. Both models use the same set of control variables (gender, PISA reading levels and socio-economic status). Results from both models (Table 6.1) show that females were associated with significantly higher odds of participating in post-secondary education in Manitoba and the rest of Canada. Results from Model 1 showed that females were 1.92 times more likely to participate in post- MULTIVARIATE ANALYSES secondary education than males in Manitoba and 1.59 times more likely in the rest of Canada. Virtually identical results were shown in Model 2, 1.90 times and 1.58 times, respectively. How often the parents talked to their children about their educational experiences and their future showed that students from the rest of Canada who had monthly or less frequent conversations were 15% less likely than those who had weekly or more frequent conversations. However, the coefficient was not statistically significant for Manitoba. Model 2 examined the effects of parental interactions with their children about their educational experiences on participation in post-secondary education more closely. Surprisingly, results showed that Manitoba students who had no conversations in the year when the survey was conducted were more likely than those who had weekly interactions to participate in post-secondary education; those who had less than once a month conversations and monthly conversations were less likely than those who had weekly conversations to participate in post-secondary education. However, these coefficients were not statistically significant. It was statistically significant that Manitoban students who had daily conversations were 1.37 times more likely than those who had weekly conversations to participate in post-secondary education. In the rest of Canada, those who had no conversations in the year when the survey was conducted, those who had less than once a month conversations and those who had monthly conversations were less likely than those who had weekly conversations to participate in post-secondary education. However, these coefficients were not statistically significant. It was statistically significant that those who had daily conversations were 1.11 times more likely than those who had weekly conversations to participate in post-secondary education. It is  12 therefore shown that for both Manitoba and the rest of Canada, those who had daily conversations at age 15 were more likely than those who had weekly conversations to participate in post- secondary education at age 19. Results from Model 1 show that the variables measuring how often the parents talked about the youths’ school work were not statistically significant for Manitoba or for the rest of Canada. Manitoba students who talked to their parents monthly or less were less likely to participate in post-secondary education four years later than those who talked weekly or more. However, students from the rest of Canada who talked to their parents monthly or less were more likely to participate in post-secondary education over those who talked weekly or more. Model 2 examined the effects of how often the parents talked about the youths’ school work on participation in post-secondary education more closely. Results from Model 2 showed that in Manitoba those who had conversations less than once a month, monthly and daily were less likely to participate in post-secondary education than those who had conversations weekly (35%, 15% and 45% respectively). For the rest of Canada, all the coefficients were not statistically significant except one. This coefficient showed that those who had conversations less than once a month were 1.26 times more likely than those who had conversations weekly to participate in post-secondary education. Results from Model 1 also showed that Manitoba students who sought career information from any counselling source were more likely to participate in post-secondary education than those who did not. However, it was not statistically significant. Students from the rest of Canada who sought career information from any counselling source were 1.22 times more likely to pursue post-secondary education four years later than those who did not. Model 2 examined the effects of each type of counselling on the decision to pursue post-secondary education more closely. The coefficients showed that students who sought information from a school counsellor or teacher were more likely to participate in post-secondary education than those who did not. Students who sought information from an outside counsellor were less likely to pursue post-secondary education than those who did not seek information from any source. However, only one coefficient was statistically significant. It showed that students from the rest of Canada who sought information from a school counsellor were 1.28 times more likely to pursue post-secondary education than those who did not seek information from any source. The largest apparent impact on post-secondary participation was that of the PISA global reading proficiency levels. Results from both Model 1 and Model 2 showed that Manitoba students who scored above level 3 (greater than 482) were more likely to participate in post-secondary education four years later than those who scored below level 3 (3.65 times and 3.71 times, respectively). This was greater than the impact that the reading scores had for the rest of Canada (2.96 times more likely). Also, in model 2, those from the rest of Canada above level 3 in reading skills were 2.98 times more likely to have participated in post-secondary education than those below level 3. To examine the influence of parents‘ socio- economic status, the socio-economic index was used. Results from Model 1 showed that for both Manitoba and the rest of Canada students whose parents had high socio-economic status were more likely to participate in post-secondary education than students whose parents had low socio-economic status (2.79 times and 3.34 times, respectively – an increase of one standard deviation on the socio-economic status scale at age 15 translates into 2.79 and 3.34 increases in the odds of pursuing post-secondary education by age 19). Results from Model 2 were virtually identical to results from Model 1.  13 Table 6.1 Results from Logistic Regressions (for standard errors see appendix B) Model 1 Model 2 VARIABLE MANITOBA REST OF MANITOBA REST OF CANADA CANADA Constant 0.48*** 0.78*** 0.44*** 0.73*** Gender (female) 1.92*** 1.59*** 1.90*** 1.58*** Talk with child re. school experience (weekly) BASE BASE Talk with child re. school experience (not this year) 3.45 0.96 Talk with child re. school experience (less than monthly) 0.58 0.74 Talk with child re. school experience (monthly) 0.87 0.91 Talk with child re. school experience (daily) 1.37** 1.11* Talk with child re. school experience (monthly or less) 0.70 0.85* Talk with child re. school experience (weekly or more) BASE BASE Talk with child re. school work (weekly) BASE BASE Talk with child re. school work (not this year) 0.53 0.79 Talk with child re. school work (less than monthly) 0.65* 1.26** Talk with child re. school work ( monthly) 0.81* 1.05 Talk with child re. school work (daily) 0.55** 1.06 Talk with child re. school work (monthly or less) 0.81 1.05 Talk with child re. school work (weekly or more) BASE BASE Career info from school counsellor 1.13 1.28*** Career info from outside counsellor 0.73 0.86 Career info from teacher 1.05 1.03 No career counselling from any source BASE BASE Career info from any counselling source 1.23 1.22*** PISA score above or at level 3 3.65*** 2.96*** 3.71*** 2.98*** SES - standardized 2.79*** 3.34*** 2.50*** 3.34*** * Significance at 10% level ** Significance at 5% level *** Significance at 1% level