Who Goes to Post-secondary Education and When: Pathways Chosen by 20 Year-olds - ARCHIVED

This study uses data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) to identify three pathways taken by high school graduates by the time they are 20 years old and to examine the factors related to one pathway versus another. The three pathways consist of participation in postsecondary education right after high school, delayed post-secondary participation, and non-participation in postsecondary education. The young people who took these pathways are referred to as right-awayers, delayers and no-goers, respectively.

The data were analysed in two phases. The first phase was a descriptive analysis that compared delayers and no-goers with right-awayers, with respect to demographics and family-related, school-related and postsecondary financing factors. The second phase used separate logistic regression models to evaluate how the factors predicted that someone might be a delayer instead of a right-awayer, or a no-goer rather than a right-awayer.

The study found that several factors were significant predictors of either delayed post-secondary education enrolment or non-enrolment in a post-secondary program.