Many secondary school graduates are deciding to go directly to work right after high school. With over 70 percent of all jobs requiring some form of post-secondary education, these students quickly find that their opportunities are extremely limited. 

They also find that employers are taking advantage of their lack of job mobility by offering them wages that are just high enough to retain them as employees, but too low for them ever to be satisfied with the quality of life such low income jobs can provide.

Secondary school students must be made aware of how easy it is to fall into this trap, because once caught in that trap, it is difficult to escape. 

Let us consider the case of Karen, a Grade 12 high school student from Sudbury. Karen had a part-time job at a local record store. One day she told and her employer that she was thinking of working for a year after graduation in order to save enough money to go to university. She told him that she didn’t want to have a big debt when she finished school. So the employer told her that he would gladly give her a full-time job and pay her $8 per hour – well above the minimum wage at the time.

After a full year, Karen found that she hadn’t really saved much money, so while discussing her situation with her employer, he gave her a raise to $9 per hour and she thought this would help a lot. She decided to stay at her current job for another year and this time she would definitely save money for school.

Near the end of the second year with his company, her employer, fearing losing a valuable, experienced employee, told Karen that he wanted to help her out so he was going to give her a raise to $10 per hour and promote her to the position of Assistant Manager, in charge of the night shift at his store.  This management position was too good for Karen to give up, so she decided to put off her education for just one more year.

After her third year was coming to an end, the employer told Karen that he was planning to open up another store on the other end of the city. He offered her the position of Store Manager and  increased her wages to the equivalent of $12 per hour to coincide with her added responsibilities.

Karen found herself trapped! 

There was absolutely no future with this store because it was a single owner company. She had stayed out of school for almost four years. She was virtually at the top of her salary level with this size of store. Even with her experience, as she sent out applications for positions in larger department stores, she found out that they wanted people with some kind of post-secondary education. Her experience in management was impressive, but they said she needed more than just a Grade 12 diploma to get a management position with the larger companies.

Eventually, many people like Karen wake up one morning and decide to "break away" from this employment trap.

Students like Karen have several choices.