Last week I sat in disbelief when I read in the Calgary Herald that our Minister of Education addressed the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and suggested to one of the largest business owners groups in Canada to shun high schooldrop-outs.
Dave Hancock suggested that the best way to motivate high school drop-outs to return to school is to just not hire them. He suggests that business owners can help Alberta lower its drop-out rate. “You can help by refusing to hire anyone without a high-school diploma,” said Hancock.
Punish the drop-out, that will teach them! Starve them out! If you have a drop-out working for you tell them to quit and get an education! If your son or daughter dropped out, whether it was recent or even a decade ago, put them on the unemployment line and make them think!
Is this the thinking that our former Attorney General, the ‘peoples attorney’ has? If it is I would suggest that his leather chair in his government office is too soft, and his vision is blurred by heavy cigar smoke. Does he not realize that in Alberta’s recent economic boom that the workforce has been shorthanded? In the past few years some small businesses have either shut down because they can’t hire help, or worse, the long-term employees are breaking their backs doing the work of two people. Not hiring the people who really need a job is not good advice for the Alberta economy.
I was expecting to read responses from journalists all over the province challenging Hancock for his gross short-sightedness. But the issue only got cursory coverage at best. Apparently high school drop-outs have no advocates.
What Hancock may not be aware of is that people drop-out of school for more reasons that just peer pressure or laziness. People have historically been forced from school due to family crisis such as the death of the bread winner, unplanned pregnancy, nervous breakdowns to name only a few.
Hancock’s speech only identified the reasons for a drop-out as greed. He suggests that they are tempted by our oil boom, citing that people are leaving school because they only want the big bucks that Alberta’s Oil Boom will bring. He suggests that after the money fervour is over with the high school drop-out is somehow unworthy of future employment.
I am not advocating people to not finish high school, quite the contrary, but those that have left school find themselves really needing jobs. There are those people, who after experiencing 5 years of reality suddenly find life harder than those who went onto a college or university. As a matter of fact, in Alberta, someone with only a high school diploma is treated much like someone who left school at grade 10.
I would think that a man like Hancock who formally had the position of ‘grand public defender‘, and now has the education interests of our Albertans as a portfolio would come up with a better piece of advice.
His reason for suggesting the shunning was that Alberta has the lowest high-school completion rate in all of Canada. Yet, Statistics Canada reports that Alberta’s drop-out rate has decreased from 15.8% reported in 1993 to 12% reported in 2005, with a national average of 10%. This is a similar trend experienced by all provinces.
Shunning is not what our provincial government should be suggesting. We live in the richest province with the greatest potential. What is needed is dynamic problem solving that would see funding and effort go into retraining programs for adult students. Give business owners incentives to hire those who need the jobs and at the same time motivate those businesses to be flexible with their employees when dealing with workers that are upgrading their educations. What is needed is for Albertans to work together and lift each other up, not tear each other down as is suggested by Hancock.
Do yourself a favour. Hire the person who needs the job. They are the ones that work hard and give you company loyalty. They can also be the type who will not be looking over the fence at every opportunity.
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