Improving the school-to-work transitions of youth in Canada: a scoping review

The Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF) undertook this scoping review to examine how to support better school-to-work transitions for youth - those who had left school prior to graduation, who went directly to the labour market after high school graduation and those who had graduated from a [post-secondary education] PSE program. The main objectives of this project were to identify what is needed to improve school-to-work transitions of Canadian youth and identify research/programming/policy gaps for future project considerations. Through this project, CCDF undertook four main...  [+] Show more

The Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF) undertook this scoping review to examine how to support better school-to-work transitions for youth - those who had left school prior to graduation, who went directly to the labour market after high school graduation and those who had graduated from a [post-secondary education] PSE program. The main objectives of this project were to identify what is needed to improve school-to-work transitions of Canadian youth and identify research/programming/policy gaps for future project considerations.

Through this project, CCDF undertook four main methods of inquiry to build this scoping review. The first was the formation of a 12-member cross-sectoral Advisory Committee (AC) of key stakeholder representatives who advised both on the development of the project and provided input on the research, potential hypotheses, literature sources, and key informant contacts. This activity was accompanied by a literature scan of Canadian and international research related to school-to-work transitions, a survey of stakeholders (n=141) to identify the main factors contributing to poor school-to-work transitions of Canadian youth, promising practice and the identification of champions working to create bridges for better transitions for a range of youth, and interviews of 11 key informants that served as a final check on the findings from the other methods of inquiry.

The review found that the problem of youth school-to-work transitions is largely a systemic one; not one that can be simply narrowed to the need for a specific program, more robust services for particular target populations of youth or stronger engagement of specific stakeholder groups. The authors found that no province has successfully enacted a comprehensive school-to-work transition strategy. Student access to transition support is spotty at best and no active system exists to support Canadian youth in their school-to-work transitions. The main recommendations are the need to delve deeper into the experience of youth and to move from research to enacting systemic change through an overarching national school-to-work strategy.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website and publication.