Education
An education system aimed at facilitating transitions into employment must incorporate:
We regard education as the formal, initial acquisition of general knowledge and entry level skills by youth and adults; and training as the formal, further acquisition of skills required to meet the needs of a job. Although, we address these two issues separately, we believe that education and training are integrated parts of a seamless continuum.
Education has a key role in providing access to meaningful employment. A wealth of analysis has shown a relation between education (level and type), the level of earnings, and the rate of unemployment. In the 1990s, high-school graduation should be considered the minimal level of education that Canadians must achieve to participate in the labour market. In the model of an education system that we present later in this section, completion of high school reflects a minimal capacity to make transitions later in life.
Statement of belief
Because this report is aimed at the vast audience of stakeholders in the transition system, we emphasize our belief that educators must find ways to make school relevant for all youth and adults -- not only those who are academically oriented -- and parents, teachers, counsellors, employers, and workers must convey the message that education matters.
In this section, we show how an education system cannot exist in isolation from the socioeconomic environment and indicate ways of making school relevant into the next century.
Our purpose in addressing education issues is not to engage in extensive discussion of the education system. Several recent reports have adequately identified the weaknesses in our systems and made appropriate recommendations. Instead, we have looked at education as an essential determinant of an individual's employability, hence a major component of a transition system. The study prepared for the Task Force by Statistics Canada clearly affirmed the positive relation between education and prospects in the labour market.