Section 4: Other types of educational programs

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For prospective students or even those that are already enrolled, postsecondary institutions offer a variety of educational programs providing unique opportunities to acquire different skills. Students wanting to acquire a balance between working experience and theory can apply to a co-operative education program, which is specifically designed for such purposes. Similarly, students that would like to experience the educational atmosphere of another country can search for institutions offering international student exchange programs. While other educational programs do exist in Canada (which will differ by educational level), the next section will focus on these two types of educational programs: co-operative education and international studies, their relationship to earnings, and finally to student debt.

4.1 Co-operative education

A larger proportion of college graduates took a co-operative program compared to bachelor graduates

College graduates were over two times more likely to have gained work experience through a co-op program than bachelor graduates. Nearly a quarter of college graduates who did not pursue further education – or 18,300 individuals – mixed work and school in a formal manner. However, despite the benefits that could possibly accrue, graduates from a co-op program at the college level had similar earnings on average and similar employment rates relative to graduates that did not enroll in such a program.

On the other hand, roughly one in eight bachelor graduates had taken a co-op program. Bachelor graduates from these programs earned more, on average, had higher employment and full-time employment rates, and lower incidence of unemployment.

There were little to no differences between co-op and non co-op program graduates in terms of average debt at graduation, proportion with debt to any source, and average debt remaining two years after graduation

Many students choose to participate in a co-operative educational program because of the work experience gained, the potential money they can earn, as well as establishing a rapport with future employers. At the bachelor level, there appeared to be a stronger monetary benefit for participating in such a program: the 2007 earnings distribution was higher at the 25th percentile and median (50th) for those in such a program relative to those that did not take a co-operative program. The higher earnings distribution may suggest that starting salaries were higher for co-operative graduates or that the earnings profile of co-operative graduates varied less relative to non-cooperative graduates. While it would be interesting to investigate this issue across the fields of study to ascertain whether particular fields were driving these differences, such an analysis would suffer from low sample sizes.

For college graduates who participated in a program mixing work and classroom theory, the monetary gain was not apparent. One explanation for such findings may be due to the very nature of the college experience. The college category encompassed some programs that were traditionally work-related in nature (trade programs), thus there may be little variation in the earnings distribution across fields of study with and without a co-operative component. Similar results were found with employment rates (see Table A.12 in appendix).

Table 4.1 Estimated gross annual earnings of 2005 graduates working full-time in 2007, for graduates of co-op versus non co-op programs, by level of study

While there was little to no variation on three of the four indicators of debt, the proportion of bachelor co-op graduates that paid off their debt completely two years after graduating was 9 percentage points higher than bachelor graduates without a co-op experience. Without further analysis, it would be speculative to link the higher proportion of those paying off debt among co-op graduates to their higher relative average earnings. The next table shows four indicators on total student debt for college and bachelor graduates from a co-op program vis-à-vis those not from a co-op program.

Table 4.2 Student debt from all sources for 2005 graduates of co-op versus non co-op programs, by level of study

4.2   International studies

Not only can prospective students enroll in programs that offer them a mixture of work and study, but they can also enroll in programs that mix domestic and international study terms. These programs, referred to as international studies, usually require that the student complete one or more study terms in a different country. For the purpose of this report, a graduate was indicated to have taken a component of their studies outside of Canada if the duration of such an experience was at least four weeks.

Roughly 4% of university graduates in 2005 took a component of their education outside of Canada

Almost 10% of doctorate graduates had studied outside of Canada's border at one point in their program, which was higher than the proportions found at the master (3%) and bachelor (4%) levels. These doctorate graduates, though, appeared to be somewhat disadvantaged in the labour market: they had lower full-time employment than other doctorate graduates with no international student experiences. On the other hand, master graduates who took part of their program outside of Canada had a higher full-time employment rate compared to those who did not. Differences in employment and unemployment rates were small at the bachelor level. Table 4.3 shows some labour force characteristics of graduates that had taken a component of their program outside of Canada.

Table 4.3 Labour force activity in 2007 of 2005 graduates, by whether or not a component of the program was taken outside of Canada and by level of study

In terms of earnings, very little separated graduates who had taken a component of their education outside of Canada with those that did not

At the bachelor, master and doctorate levels, there was little that separated graduates, in terms of earnings, from programs that incorporated academic experience outside of Canada and those that did not. As Table 4.4 shows, graduates with and without international study experience did not differ substantially at each quartile of the annual 2007 earnings.

Table 4.4 Estimated gross annual earnings for 2005 graduates working full-time in 2007, by whether or not a component of the program was taken outside of Canada and by level of study

For graduates who had taken a component of their education outside of Canada, accumulating student debt from any source was relatively common. Graduates at the bachelor level that had taken some portion of their program outside of Canada were slightly more likely to have graduated with some debt than those without such an experience. This was the case for doctorates as well. However, graduates at the master level with this type of educational program were substantially more likely to have debt at graduation than those not part of a similar program; 62% of master graduates with such a component had debt owed to any source at graduation, compared to 46% of master graduates without a portion of their program taken outside of Canada.

Table 4.5 Student debt from all sources for 2005 graduates, by whether or not a component of the program was taken outside of Canada and by level of study

Graduates with an international component and student related debt were also more likely to have paid off their debt two years later at the bachelor and master level. Specifically, there was a 10 percentage point gap at the master level and a 6 percentage point difference at the bachelor level. On the other hand, doctorate graduates with debt at graduation and a component outside of Canada were less likely to have paid off their debt two years later compared to doctorate graduates without an international student experience.

Summary

Section four showed that although the anecdotal benefits of undertaking a co-operative educational program are generally positive, graduates at the college level with co-operative experience were no more likely to excel on the labour market two years after graduation relative to graduates without such an experience. However at the bachelor level, graduates with co-operative experience were earning more, had higher employment and full-time employment rates, and were more likely to have reported their debt paid off two years after graduation. The descriptive analysis on graduates who had taken a component of their studies outside of Canada revealed that very little separated them, in terms of earnings, from graduates without such an experience. However, it was shown that master graduates with international experience were more likely to have owed debt at graduation but also more likely to be working full-time and to have paid off their debt two years after graduating.