I can still remember sitting in the back of the cafeteria for the mass screening of “Generation Jobless” in my tenth-grade Civics and Careers class. To this day, the only facts and lessons that actually stayed with me were from that documentary.
The pessimistic piece revealed the high unemployment rates for university graduates. CBC’s “Generation Jobless” perpetuated the notion that despite your post-secondary schooling and all of the tears and money that you contribute towards it, you will most likely be unemployed. The documentary claimed that Canadian post-secondary institutions were not going to prepare students for a place within the job market. It alluded to the fact that many university graduates would end up working minimum wage jobs that they were highly over-qualified for. Whether or not this claim is true, the documentary did not offer possible solutions to the proposed issue, nor did it express many counter-claims.
Although it brought awareness to the fact that the job market—especially in a post-recession era—is an incredibly tough one to enter, it also had a damaging effect on many of its viewers. Practicality is important when deciding what career path you intend to take on for the rest of your life, but “Generation Jobless” had a stunting effect on my ambitions.
It was hard to motivate myself to spend my hours studying and essay-writing when I felt that it wouldn’t make me any better off. “Generation Jobless” perpetuated a domino effect where out of fear of unemployment, I started considering the “stable” job rather than one that interested me. Suddenly I felt as though no degree, no career path, would offer me stability. It wasn’t parents or friends that were backing me into this corner, it was the numbers, statistics and the irrefutable facts.
This domino effect didn’t only reach me, it reach into the minds of every young individual across the school board that was forced to watch it within their Civics and Careers class as well.
Suddenly the culture around post-secondary education became less of a goal and more of a dread. People dreaded approaching four years of loans, debt and stress when they felt that it would leave them in the same situation as someone who didn’t pursue post-secondary education after high school. Similarly, they dreaded working towards a degree that felt “safer” rather than one that they were interested in.
I don’t deny the fact that this documentary was very informative and its claims should be discussed. Only when such an issue is introduced, can we open up a dialogue about how to bridge the gap between graduating from post-secondary institutions and entering the job market. However, screening the documentary to a room full of fifteen years olds who are on the cusp of self-discovery can curb their choice, stunt their decision-making and ultimately discourage them.