Executive Summary

CHANGING WORLD,
BUILDING CAREERS
It’s My Future 2: Student Voices Across Ontario

Copyright © 2017 The Learning Partnership. All rights reserved

The world of work is changing. Today’s workplaces feature innovative ways to engage with consumers
and a more collaborative, multilateral and responsive working environment— empowered by technology
and the inclusion of different voices.
Ontario’s students, their preparation for and pathway toward this new work environment lie at the heart
of It’s My Future 2 (IMF2), a report recently completed by The Learning Partnership. Crucially, IMF2 asks
students to think critically about the future value of their education and their perceptions about career-
related learning for their successful entry into the workforce of tomorrow.
Based on a survey of 14,712 Ontario secondary school students, IMF2 explores a range of influences
on students’ career decision–making, ending with some key recommendations for the education-to-
employment learning process in Ontario.

Key Themes
The results of the IMF2 survey help expand our knowledge of students’ understanding about the changing
employment landscape and shows that the students’ critical career and training decisions are influenced,
or not, by the following five factors:

Students’ interests, aptitude, skills and school experiences:

The majority of Ontario high school students have a clear college- or university-based destination in
mind, but fewer (40.7%) are certain about the job or career that they eventually want to pursue. That
said, 5.5% of students plan to pursue a trade or apprenticeship program, 2.6% plan to enter the
workforce directly, and 11.8% don’t know what their destination will be.
Students are also hopeful about their preparation for their future job and feel that they are acquiring
the skills needed in their future careers. They typically rate themselves as “good” or “excellent”
in knowledge-based and transferrable skills; however, over a third rate their mathematics, science,
and financial management skills as poor or fair. While students feel that knowledge-based skills are
important for their career plans, they rated transferrable skills to be the most important for their future
employment.

The influence of parents, family members, school staff, peers and community members:
Students mostly consult their families (62.8%) for career advice, with a great reliance on parents
(52.4%). Although 73.7% of students said that there is an adult at school that they can turn to for
career advice, only 28% of them sought out career advice from a guidance counsellor. Among those
who consulted their guidance counsellor, 91.6% reported that their needs were fully or partially met.
Strikingly, 7% of students responded that they would not seek anyone’s advice, while 4.7% opted to
rely on the advice of their peers.

The role of school in career preparation:

While 72% of students reported that they received some career information at school, much lower
proportions of students reported receiving specific information on: 1) transitions to work or further
education; 2) the role of personal interests in career planning; 3) the role of grades in career planning;
4) costs of pursuing various career plans, and; 5) the importance of considering labour market trends.
In addition, 61.6% of students would like to see career education begin in Grades 7-9, earlier than its
current introduction in the Ontario Grade 10 curriculum.

2 |  Changing World, Building Careers

Students’ access to labour market information (LMI) necessary to pursue a job or career:
While access to labour market information (LMI) is crucial for students’ career decision-making, the
data shows that students’ career preparation experiences do not include consideration of labour
market trends, with the majority having little access to such information. Without a clear idea of what
LMI is or where it can be found, it is not surprising that 59.8% of students replied “No” when asked
if “labour market trends” had influenced their job or career-related decisions.

Students’ access to work-integrated-learning (WIL):

Another notable finding is that only 26.3% of students, who took part in the survey, participated in
work-integrated learning during the school year. That said, 61.9% of those who had participated said
that the opportunity had a definitive impact upon their career choice.

Recommendations for Actions

Rethinking and reinventing career education:
Despite the progressive work Ontario has undertaken in career education, there are three issues that
should be considered in the re-tooling of career preparation in secondary schools:
• the gap between policy and practice on the role of guidance in students’ career planning;
• relevance of the mandatory Grade 10 career course; and
• the potential for secondary school schedules and/or streaming consequences to negatively affect
student access to WIL.

Nurturing a strong career education resource network:

While businesses tend to believe that the responsibility for producing a career-ready workforce lies
with the education system and/or the government, the reality is far more complex. Given their key
role in delivering WIL and contributing to LMI, businesses of all types and sizes will need to commit
to participating in programs that enable students to experience different types of workplace learning
(refer to the IMF2 full report, Appendix: Promising Models of WIL and LMI).

Strategic support to parents and communities:

With increasing attention to the importance of LMI on informing students’ career options, work must
be undertaken to provide accessible and relatable LMI to families and communities, especially those
who may face barriers of access to current LMI. This includes developing alternative forms of LMI,
such as narrative models (refer to the IMF2 full report, Appendix: Promising Models of WIL and LMI).

Directions for research:

As improvements or innovations in career programming and delivery are made, it is crucial to invest in
measuring their impact, particularly with vulnerable populations such as First Nations, Métis, and Inuit
students or students with exceptionalities. This includes a careful investigation into the accessibility
and relatability of customizable career information and resources, such as LMI, for students and their
parents.

The Learning Partnership Report  | 3

 Executive Summary

CHANGING WORLD,
BUILDING CAREERS
It’s My Future 2: Student Voices Across Ontario

Copyright © 2017 The Learning Partnership. All rights reserved

The Learning Partnership

National office: Toronto
45 Sheppard Ave. East, Suite 400
Toronto, ON,  M2N 5W9
Tel.: 416 440 5100  1 800 790 9113
Fax: 416 482 5311
Email: info@thelearningpartnership.ca
Website: thelearningpartnership.ca

Charitable Registration # 140756107RR0001