ssues & ideas EDITOR JEREMY SALLY THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2012 7 ‘Drowning in debt’ and dead-end jobs? Students pin debt-payment hopes on high-paying jobs that may not be there after school Degree Is no longer job guarantee One million jobs to be on offer by 2020 but most will be in the tecnical trades, sciences and medicine By JANA MINOR ome students spend more time researching cellphone plans than they do investigating ca- reer prospects for their chosen field of study. But the B.C. government is hoping to change that. The province projects a labour short- age of approximately one million jobs by 2020 in technical trades, healthcare and applied sciences. To fill the gap, it’s launched an advertising campaign aimed at making these careers more attractive to students. Ads on buses saying “hipster is not a real job” direct to the website Career- trekbe.ca which lists 52 careers in high demand over the next decade. Targeted jobs include carpenter, paramedic, sawmill operator, physiotherapist, mid- wife, geologist, counsellor, and bus driver. Salaries range from $83,000 to $125,000. “Trade school used to be for dum- mies, but it’s not anymore,” said Jeff Polkinghorne, recruiter with Manpow- er employment agency. Polkinghorne is flooded with staffing requests for electricians, machinists, and manufacturing engineers who can make up to $80 per hour. “Healthcare will be huge because of aging boomers,” he continued, adding that managers of care homes can make up to $250,000. Polkinghorne advises students to re- search job trends before deciding on a program, if they want a high-paying job. “You really have to specialize,” he said. For students who don’t go into trades, there are still plenty of entry level jobs in administration and cus- tomer service that pay between $35,000 and $45,000, said Polkinghorne, who’s seen a 40 per cent overall hiring in- crease recently. Yet despite this growth, Nancy Vye, manager of corporate communications at TD Bank Group, said in an email the Canadian economy churned out 52,100 new jobs in September, only 5,700 of which were created in B.C. Students are contending with a sev- en per cent unemployment rate in B.C. Scott McLean, head of Langara’s eco- nomics department, said job projec- tions are based on assumptions, which can be wrong. McLean pointed to baby boomers who are working past age 65. “Freedom 55 is not the reality for lots of people,” he said. “All those people staying in their jobs, it’s not freeing up those jobs.” BY THE Numbers B.C. is expected to create 450,000 jobs by 2019. Retirees will vacate 670,000 jobs. Growth in job openings will likely outpace graduation rate. Source: www.workbe.ca/ Statistics JANA MINOR, JEREMY SALLY photos Graduates must dig deeper than ever before to enter the workforce with a degree while the Globe and Mail (right) discusses if the returns are worth the in- vestment BA. BOY. ‘APA Sv Students dish out on debt and tuition DOLLARS and cents Min 1972, nearly 79 per cent of a university's budget was government funded. Hin 2009, it was 58 per cent. HM Students now shoulder 35 per cent of the operat- ing budget. ME Average yearly tuition in Canada costs $5,581. Source: http://www.theglobean- dmail.com/news/national/ time-to-lead/ Langara students talk about their finances and their opinions on whether school should be provided for free By JULES KNOX are wondering why they are drowning in debt while many Eu- ropean countries provide free educa- tion to their citizens. Students calling for free tuition in Quebec have unleashed a debate on the costs of post-secondary education in B.C., and whether it is up to students or governments to shoulder the costs. With tuition for the spring semester due in less than two months, Langara students are nervously checking their bank account balances. a post-secondary students “T don’t think that the price we pay for our education is fair,” says Adam Giesbrecht, the queer liaison for Lang- ara Students’ Union. Giesbrecht is already more than $18,000 in debt after a year and a half of school. “T have no idea how I’m going to pay it off in the long run,” he says. “T don’t have my family to fall back on. I live on my own. I have no- : VIRGINIA MILLSAP body.” a ; Econ. student Virginia = Mill sith 13K of debt sap, an economics student, has ap- proximately $13,000 worth of loans. “It would be awesome if we didn’t have to pay for our education,” she says. “But if school was free I would be worried about the number of people who would go to school for the sake of not going to work. I feel like they would abuse the system.” Like many other students, Millsap’s plan to pay off her debt relies on find- ing a high-paying job after graduation. Most students say they do not have a plan to pay off their loans if they don’t find a job in their field. Margarita Andreeva, a student in ki- nesiology, wants to go to medical school. But she’s nervous about the number of loans she might need. “I definitely support free tuition,” she says. “It releases stress from stu- dents. We can focus on our education instead of worrying about part-time jobs.” For students feeling overwhelmed with debt, Andreeva has some advice: “Be positive, have hope, and know that we're all going through the same thing,” she says. College debt lasts lifetime, experts say Several years of school can place financial burdens that follow a graduate all the way from the podium to retirement By RYAN BANAGAN da, particularly B.C., are facing more education-related debt than any previous generation. The debt is putting graduates in a hole that often takes years, even de- cades to get out according to Richard Davies, a retirement and college sav- ings plans director at AllianceBern- stein, L.P. “Funding a college education isn’t just about those four years; it’s about a young adult’s ability to start a family, buy a house, and ultimately, even to one day retire,” said Davies. According to the Canadian Federa- tion of Students, B.C. post- secondary students will be, on average, $27,000 in debt after completing a four-year de- gree program. R::: college graduates in Cana- Repayment of the loan starts six months after a stu- dent’s last end-of- study date, which When you they provide tothe saddle National Student Loans Service Cen. YOUNG me hese fund; adults ollege funding . is a fundamental with debt, financial and life they’re planning issue,” e said Davies. not just a “When you sad borrow- e young adults + ° with debt, they’re mg their not just borrowing college their college tu- oye ition, they’re bor- tuition, rowing from their they’re future.” ° While the first DOrrowing decade out of col- from their lege is financially challenging for fi uture many people, it is particularly so for those with college debt. Students and their families are find- ing that eliminating this debt is nega- tively affecting their lives not only fi- nancially but also psychologically. “Tt’s hard to feel like youre making progress in life, when 10 years after graduating, you’re still receiving a monthly reminder of your college obli- gations,” said Jennifer DeLong, Direc- tor, College Savings Plans at Alliance- Bernstein, L.P. “The impact of college debt is not just a financial one,” said Diane Mc- Curdy, president of McCurdy Financial Planning. “College debt also affects quality of life. Students are being forced to alter life events and career choices. A theme amongst recent graduates is postponing graduate school, or leav- ing jobs they like because they didn’t pay well enough. Others are deciding to trade free- dom for security by moving back home with mom and dad to help save money on rents. RICHARD DAVIES AllianceBernstein, L.P.