Abstract
The demand for and participation in continuing education by Canadian university graduates who completed bachelor and/or first professional degrees in 1995 are analyzed in this article. Within five years of completing their first degree, in addition to participating in graduate programs, a large number of those graduates participated in non-degree programs and courses for career and job purposes and for personal reasons. Through a descriptive analysis of National Graduate Survey (NGS) data for the 1995 cohort, the authors examined the socio-demographic profile of participants, their motives for participating in continuing education, and their choice of specific programs. According to the study findings, the respondents' labour-market situation, both in objective and subjective terms, was an important reason for participating in continuing education; indeed, more than three-quarters of participants had a job/education-related reason for participating in continuing education. In particular, the study provides information and insight into the demand (expressed and latent) of a targeted university continuing education audience. The National Graduate Survey together with Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) and institutional data, allow a more realistic assessment of participants' needs and program preferences.
Highlights
In all industrialized countries, continuing education and training has become a common preoccupation of the workforce
There was almost no difference in participation rates between male and female participants in the younger group; by contrast, men in the older group were much more active in continuing education” (CE) than women (61% vs 53%). This may seem somewhat odd given that women outnumber men in almost all other educational activities; family obligations may provide at least part of the explanation for why respondents participated in CE beyond obtaining a first degree, within the first five years of graduation
Does emerge from the National Graduates Survey (NGS) data with regard to the questions we asked at the beginning of this article? First, quite useful for University continuing education (UCE) analysts and institutional planners, and for programming and marketing purposes, the NGS data do not provide a full picture of the demand for and participation in university continuing education
Summary
In all industrialized countries, continuing education and training has become a common preoccupation of the workforce. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2008), approximately one-quarter of 25- to 64-year-old adults in Canada participate in some form of non-formal, job-related continuing education and training. This situates Canada among the countries with a well-developed system of education and training by OECD standards, after Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Revue canadienne de l’éducation permanente universitaire Vol 35, No 2, automne 2009 to serve a more-diverse adult population, provincial adult learning systems remain complex, fragmented, and incomplete (Myers & de Broucker, 2006) It is not surprising, that those who take advantage of continuing education and training opportunities are mainly individuals who have prior experience accessing the system. In Canada, the participation level is 35% among adults with tertiary (postsecondary) education, 20% among those with an upper-secondary and a post-secondary non-tertiary education, and 6% among those with a lowersecondary education
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