A Bachelor’s degree provides students with the critical thinking, research and writing skills that today’s employers demand. Many post-secondary institutions are also providing their students with on-the-job training, giving them another advantage over those with only a high school diploma. A university degree has become a necessary requirement for most entry-level professional and management positions. Recent census data confirms that income will increase more rapidly and consistently for a university diploma holder.

A problem facing university students today is whether or not one degree is enough to secure desirable employment. A Bachelor’s degree provides students with an educational foundation they can build on, whereas a Master’s degree or PhD provides specialized knowledge in one area. Additional degrees become important when employees want to advance up the corporate latter. More degrees often mean better wages. According to the 2008 starting salary index, an elementary school teacher with a Bachelor’s degree can expect to earn an average of $33,242 annually compared to $43,997 for those with a Master’s degree. An engineer with a Bachelor’s degree can expect to earn $54,181 compared to $69,752 for engineers with a Master’s degree.

Employment for those with only a high school diploma is very hard to come by, especially in this economy where people apply for and accept positions even if they are over-qualified. However, students who cannot or do not want to attend university should not be concerned because they have other options. Many institutions offer certificates in marketing, computer programing, trades and much more. University is not the right fit for everyone. It is important that students are made aware of all their options before they select a post-secondary path.

http://www.aucc.ca/publications/auccpubs/value-of-a-degree/in-canadas-labour-market_e.html

http://www.careerbuilder.com/article/cb-1152-getting-ahead-bachelors-vs-masters-how-does-your-salary-stack-up/

The survey, which sought to gain insight into college and career readiness issues, polled 160 guidance counsellors, 120 [university students] and up to 100 recent high school and [university] graduates who are in the workplace today.

Guidance counsellors indicated that they tend to focus on student populations who represent the extremes of the achievement spectrum, with more than 50 percent of their time spent dealing with students who may not graduate, and 36 percent of their time spent on those who are [university] bound. Guidance cousellors also pointed toward [university] ‘eligibility’ as a measure of student success, as opposed to ‘readiness’ with nearly 70 percent of respondents defining success as a student receiving a high school diploma. [University] students, however, indicated that they could have been better prepared to meet [university] academic standards and relied primarily on close friends and family members as mentors.

“Ensuring that our students are prepared to reach their academic and professional goals goes beyond closing the gap between what high schools teach and what [universities] expect,: said Jeff Livingston, senior vice-president of McGraw-Hill Education’s College and Career Readiness Centre. “This survey confirms what we’ve long believed and are striving to change in the educational system; the distinction between [university] eligible and [university] ready. Being eligible for [university] is simply not good enough in the global economy of the 21^st century; our high school students must be richly and rigorously prepared for a lifetime of learning and professional development.”

According to the survey, nearly half of recent high school graduates feel they did not choose the right career – 81 percent felt practical work experience would have helped then make a better choice and an overwhelming amount (96 percent) said that an internship would have made then feel better prepared for the work force. The top three areas where graduates would have liked to receive further instruction in high school/[university] included technology applications (31 percent) and communication skills (28 percent). Further, 72 percent of [university] graduates selected time management as the biggest differentiator between high school and [university], which remained a common theme, as the majority (43 percent) also identified time management as an area where they would have like further instruction in high school.

www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mcgraw-hill-survey-provides-insight-into

http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=6624

McMaster launches new virtual tour

Want to see McMaster University’s beautiful campus but can’t make it in-person? 

The new online tour provides more multimedia, interactivity and information for visitors to tours.mcmaster.ca. The portal allows prospective students to take a “Guided Tour” designed to emulate an in-person walking tour, create a personalized tour (based on categories relevant to prospective students) or explore various campus hotspots.

“The new virtual tour will benefit many prospective students,” said Andy Moonsammy, a liaison officer with Student Recruitment & Admissions. “The tour makes it easier for students to see McMaster, particularly those living far away and not able to visit, as well as those who might not realize what’s in their own backyard.”

The new virtual tour has already been explored by visitors from various communities across Canada and countries such as China, India, Brazil and New Zealand.

“Seeing a campus often solidifies a student’s decision to attend a university,” said Paula Johnson, assistant registrar and 18-year veteran in the recruiting industry. “Our new tour allows us to bring the McMaster campus to an entirely new group of students who may not have even considered us before.”

Liberal Arts encompasses a broad area of study, which includes the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Humanities is the study of the human experience from the perspective of philosophy, history, literature, languages, music, theatre and art.  The Humanities explore the values, ideas and ideals of humanity in order to create thoughtful and responsible citizens of the world.

Social Sciences uses scientific methods to analyze, evaluate and understand human behaviour, society and cultural patterns.  The social sciences include the fields of anthropology, commerce, criminology, economics, geography, political studies, psychology, sociology and women’s studies.

It is this combination and the generality of a BA degree that make it so useful.  “The value [of it] is that it’s preparing [students] for any career”, says Jennifer Floren, CEO of a college recruiting service.  Once [students] begin to think of the Arts degree in terms of acquiring broad, transferable skills, as opposed to specific techniques and knowledge, its merits become more apparent.

An Arts degree is not a vocational one, so its graduates must do more work to prepare for the job search, says Gregg Blachford, Director of the McGill Career and Placement Centre.  “If you’re in engineering or management, you’re being streamlined,” he says.  For arts graduates, career paths are less obvious.  “A lot of arts students are just not aware of the nature of work out there,” Blachford adds. 

“ . . . [students] have to make what [they] want out of it.”

McGill’s Dean of Arts, Christopher Manfredi, believes that the Bachelor of Arts is a valuable degree because it allows students depth in their discipline, breadth of education and “because of the skills it teaches . . .  in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, ability to write and its broad exposure to questions of the human condition.”  For the university student, beginning adult life from the general perspective that an Arts degree provides choice, and moving slowly toward a more specialized focus after graduation, is much easier than beginning with something very specific (say, neurobiology) and trying to expand your focus later.  The freedom to learn from several disciplines within the Faculty of Arts allows students to explore many academic paths to help them with this decision.

The liberal arts approach is making a comeback in Canada after years of focus on technical skills, needed to support the once-burgeoning high-tech sector.  As the technological boom has begun to even out, the demand for employees with a broader mindset has resurfaced in the job market to manage the infrastructure and creative thinking behind modern innovation.  In a January 2001 report, 30 top executives of major Canadian high-tech corporations released a joint statement citing a “strong need for those with a broader background who can work in tandem with technical specialists, helping create and manage a corporate environment.”

The post-secondary education system in Canada is also shifting slightly to provide more liberal arts opportunities.  For example, McGill’s freshman Arts Legacy program that is a year-long interdisciplinary approach emphasizing rhetorical skills such as how to think critically and communicate effectively.  BA graduates are actually highly employable in the corporate world.  “The CEOs of the world are mostly arts students,” says Blachford.  According to a recent statistical analysis conducted by Dr. Robert C. Allen of the University of British Columbia, 50 to 81 per cent of arts graduates are employed in a professional or managerial capacity, which compared favourable with those in commerce, at 60 per cent.  Manfredi believes this favourable statistic exists because “employers are looking for smart people who easily adapt to new situations.”  In fact, he suggest, “someone with an arts degree may be better at those things than someone with a more specialized degree.”

The merits of the broad arts program are resonating now with other faculties that are now shifting towards a multidisciplinary approach in their programs.  “I think there is a recognition in the fact that we have created the Bachelor of Arts and Science degree, that people who are in science need exposure to arts and vice versa,” says Manfredi. 

Exposure to diverse courses and disciplines gives the graduate with a BA the invaluable skill of adaptability.  According to Manfredi, “I think it makes one a better citizen [and] a better human being, and I think the most important thing is that it gives one a degree of adaptability, which in a rapidly changing world, is absolutely crucial.”  

Excerpted from:

http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2006/11/07/Features/Feature.An.Arts.Degree.Is.Not.just.For.Arts.Sake-2444473.shtml