Is post-secondary education a waste of time?
Signs of skepticism in the knowledge economy
Most people agree that you need more than a high school education to position yourself for success in the knowledge economy.
A majority of Canadians (60%) strongly or somewhat agree that “these days, a young person in Canada can’t expect to get a good job without a college diploma or university degree.”
Only about one in three (32%) agree with a contrary proposition that “for a young person today, going to college or university is more or less a waste of time.”
So far, so good. But the opinions of younger Canadians are probably more important – so let’s look more closely at those.
Interestingly, younger Canadians are the most likely to agree with both statements. Agreement that you need a college diploma or university degree to get a good job is highest among adults under the age of 30. But younger adults are also a little more likely to agree that going to college or university is more or less a waste of time.
For those age 18 to 29 specifically, 69 percent agree that a young person can’t expect to get a good job without a diploma or a degree; but a surprising 42 percent also agree that, for a young person today, going to college or university is more or less a waste of time.
Obviously, this means that a number of people hold what at first glance might appear to be contradictory positions. There is a group that agrees both that post-secondary education is essential, and that it is a waste of time. Here’s what the combination of answers to both questions looks like for the adult population as a whole.
Looked at this way, 36 percent of Canadians agree that you need a college diploma or university degree to get a good job, and disagree that going to college or university is more or less a waste of time. But 20 percent concede the first point (you need a degree or diploma to get a good job), but still see college or university as a waste of time.
Before trying to explain the apparent contradiction, let’s look at some groups that are more likely to hold this mixed view (post-secondary education is needed to get a good job, but is also a waste of time). This figure stands at 20 percent overall, but reaches:
26 percent among those who identify as Black;
28 percent among those currently enrolled in education (students);
31 percent among those between the ages of 18 and 24;
36 percent among men between the ages of 18 and 24.
A notable minority of Canadians, then, hold apparently contradictory views about post-secondary education (it is both necessary and a waste of time), with the proportion being larger among certain groups, particularly younger men. But why?
At this point, we have to leave the hard data behind and speculate. As a rule of thumb, when people answer surveys in unexpected ways, it’s a good idea to avoid dismissing them as confused or uninformed. It’s better to keep an open mind about what message they’re trying to convey. In this case, my own interpretation is that those holding these opinions think that going to college or university is important, not because of what you might learn, but simply because employers require applicants to have a diploma or degree. In other words, post-secondary education is less about acquiring knowledge and more about getting the piece of paper you need to carry with you into the labour market.
Is this a problem? That’s a harder question to answer. Some younger men may be expressing a certain measure of bravado (“you can’t teach me anything I don’t already know”), but this hardly matters if they end up enrolling in college or university and acquiring new knowledge and skills anyway.
But if I was running a college or a university, I’d still want to know why one in four Black Canadians, more than one in four current students, and one in three young men – who recognize that they can’t expect to get a good job without a college diploma or university degree – nonetheless feel at the same time that going to college or university is more or less a waste of time.
The data is this post is from the fifth wave of the Survey on Employment and Skills. This survey is conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, in partnership with the Future Skills Centre and the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University. The fifth wave of the study consists of a survey of 5,904 Canadians age 18 and over, conducted between March 1 and April 3, 2023, in all provinces and territories. It was conducted both online (in the provinces) and by telephone (in the territories). The author is solely responsible for any errors of presentation or interpretation.
The Survey on Employment and Skills is funded primarily by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre / Le sondage sur l’emploi et les compétences est financé principalement par le Centre des Compétences futures du gouvernement du Canada.
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