The school-to-work transition of Canadian post-secondary graduates: a dynamic analysis.

This paper reports the results of an empirical analysis of the school-to-work transition of Canadian post-secondary graduates based on three waves of the National Graduates Surveys, representing those who successfully completed their programmes at Canadian colleges and universities in 1982, 1986, and 1990. Information was gathered during interviews conducted two and five years after graduation for each group, thus facilitating a dynamic analysis of the critical early post-graduation years. The analysis is generally broken down by sex and specific level of education (college, bachelor's, master's, PhD) Outcomes analysed include: the number and characteristics of graduates (by level and sex); the number of graduates who went on to further degrees and the types of degrees thus obtained; the job-education skill match and the relationship between the current job's educational prerequisites and graduates' qualifications; job satisfaction and the overall evaluation of the educational programme; and inter-provincial mobility in the post-graduation years. Various implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]