Pathways Taken by Youth

The decade after high school is a time of growth and change for most young people. Whatever plans they have when they graduate from high school, more likely than not will change as young people learn more about themselves and the career options open to them. Even the high school graduate who is well informed and focused about his future will likely experience unpredictable events and influences that will change, or at least modify, the path that he takes.

The findings from our research project can be summarized in 12 KEY FINDINGS and THE PROCESS OF FINDING THEIR PLACE.

Please contact Cathy Campbell at cathygcampbell@ns.sympatico.ca or phone the RRC at 902-494-3050 if you would like to have us do a presentation on our research findings.

12 KEY FINDINGS

The results of our research suggest a number of different aspects of young people’s experience after graduating from high school.


Pathways
 

• There is a window of opportunity for exploration that spans from the late teens to the mid-twenties for many young people. For some, there is little opportunity for exploration while others extend their exploration into their late twenties and beyond.

• Youth use three strategies to find out more about themselves and the options available to them: Navigating, Exploring, and Drifting.

• After a period of exploration, youth Commit, Settle, or continue to Explore.

• Young people receive powerful messages that influence the pathways they take. Some are guided by these messages, while others resist.

Path After High School
 

• The presence of complex, unpredictable, and interactive influences and events make it difficult to predict what education and career pathways a young person will take after high school.

• The majority of young people either do not know what they want to do when they graduate from high school or subsequently change their plans.

• Expectations about what youth will do after high school are influenced by their academic performance, the education level of their parents, and what their peer group is doing.

Post-Secondary Education
 

• There are drawbacks to youth attending post-secondary education when they aren’t ready.

• Many youth benefit or can benefit from taking a time-out before, during, or after they attend post-secondary education.

• Young people who have high debt loads find it more difficult to engage in exploration and to gain further education.

Guidance
 

• Most youth receive little career information or guidance. Those who do are far more likely to get it from friends and family members than from professionals.

• Although a minority of youth receive assistance from professionals, many of those who do find it extremely helpful.

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THE PROCESS OF FINDING THEIR PLACE

The majority of young people we interviewed either did not have plans when they graduated from high school, or they changed their original plans as experience caused their goals to shift or their access to resources such as education, job opportunities, and self-confidence grew or diminished.

Although their life stories were very different, the participants shared at least one common struggle after graduating high school: they wanted to “find a place.” For our participants, place meant a career in the broadest sense of the word. For some, place meant what they did for paid employment. Others found their place as stay-at-home parents or through volunteer and leisure activities through which they contributed to their families and communities.

Finding a place was seldom straightforward as participants tried to find a fit between what they wanted and the resources that were available to them. The good news is, that by the time these young adults were in their late twenties, the majority had found a place with which they were satisfied. A few found that place in their early twenties, but most needed more time. There was still, however, a sizeable minority who, for a variety of reasons, were not able to follow their chosen career path or were still unclear about what they wanted to do.


Three Paths

With 100 detailed case studies to consider, any attempt to reduce the sample to a narrow typology would, of course, risk oversimplifying the complexities of the participants’ lives. However, most of the participants’ accounts of trying to find their place cluster under three broad categories: Navigators, Explorers, and Drifters.

Participants may have used more than one strategy depending on how sure they were of their goals and their access to resources. Some participants described patterns that overlapped with one or more categories at the same time, although in general the typology could account for most aspects of the participants’ search for a career with which they could feel satisfied.


Navigators

Navigators know what they want to do and are engaged in education and/or work activities necessary to achieve their goal. Though they could clearly articulate a desired destination for their career search, they may or may not have known much about the specifics of what they had chosen to do.


Explorers

Explorers cannot say what they want to do specifically, but they are engaged in a process of experimentation as a way to learn more about themselves and their options. They are proactive in their search for information about career opportunities; they speculate about areas of interest, and they seek experiences whereby they can test the waters to determine the fit of particular career options. Explorers, though uncertain about their goals, are actively trying to understand where they might put their talents to best use.


Drifters

Drifters don’t know what they want to do, are laissez-faire about making choices, or face numerable barriers to career fulfillment. Being unable or unwilling to proactively seek a career, they are apt to “go with the flow.” Over time some became stuck. There was a sense of aimlessness and passivity in the stories drifters told of their post-secondary education and work histories.


The Outcome of Navigating, Exploring and Drifting

By the time participants were in their late twenties, the majority had made what Arnett describes as “the settled choices of young adulthood.” However, their satisfaction with the places they had found varied significantly. We found that the majority of the participants fell into one of two categories that we call Committers and Settlers.


Committers

Committers have found a place that “clicks” for them, one that they are generally happy with and have no plans to change any time soon. The good news is that many of our participants had attained a meaningful sense of place a decade after graduating from high school.


Settlers

Settlers are those young people who have found a place that they don’t particularly like but, for a variety of reasons, they plan to stay. A decade after graduating, some of our participants were in the Settler category, having attached to an occupation or lifestyle that fulfilled their need for a place, but which they described as only being moderately satisfying. The source of their dissatisfaction may relate to the work itself, poor pay, or lack of potential for advancement.

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