My son is a statistic—and somewhere in the
story he shares with some 24,000 other. young
Canadians there may be a lesson for hundreds of
senior secondary students on the North Shore who
will be returning to school three weeks from now.

Dan (not his real name,

but close enough) is one of:

the 95,000 students: who
graduated this spring from
university. According to
Canada Manpower, at least
25 percent of them. still
haven't found jobs—and a
further 25. per cent are
underemployed.

Despite a good arts deg-
ree, scores of letters. of
application and a dozen
interviews ‘since May, Dan
still belongs to the first 25
per cent.

DIGGING DITCHES

The arts degree, however
good, doesn’t help, of
course, because arts people
are to some extent bearing
the: brunt of the present
graduate umemployment
crisis, But a recent Financial
Post report shows _ that
almost any species of 1976
university graduate has an
exceptionally good chance of
winding up driving ‘a cab,
waiting on tables or digging
ditches. If they’ re lucky, that
is. .

Schools are running short
of students (partly, I pre-
sume, because of The Pill),
with the result that 40 per

cent.of this year’s education

graduates are stili as far
away as ever from becoming
teachers. The ‘‘No Vacancy”’
signs are up on every school

baord door in the country.

- Both business and gov-
ernment are taking a long,
hard look at their laborator-
ies and cutting back on
research. The year’s 10,000
science grads are finding the
winds of recession just about
as chilling as their contemp-
oraries from the arts facul-
ties. B.Comm’s and MBAs
aren't doing all that much
better (one national company
had SOQ applications for
three job openings, instead
of the normal 100).

NURSES EMIGRATING

One in four law graduates
probably won't find firms to
article with. Apart from
Alberta, there are hundreds
of unemployed engineering
grads from end to end of the
country—formerly an un-
heard-of situation. Nursing
grads can find few Canadian
beds to tend and some are
emigrating to the States,
where there seems to be &
shortage of nurses.

Even for doctors, appar-
ently, there are often few

openings in the bigger cities.

More. and more newly
qualified medicos are forced
to settle for exile in the
boondocks. if they want to
continue wielding the steth-
oscope and the scalpel.

In almost every ~ other
field—from architecture ' to

theology—it’s a bleak year |

for the class of 76. As a
statistic, Dan is in very good
company.
wrong?

_ “OVEREDUCATING”

“Not, primarily, the present
general high level of unem-

- ployment, according to one

Manpower official quoted by
The Financial Post. Rather,
the dramatic increase in
post-secondary education
during the sixties and earlier
seventies. ‘‘We seem to be
overeducating too many peo-
ple,’’ he said.

‘In the past five years the
number of students graduat-
ing with bachelor degrees
has jumped 33 per cent and,
in the words of a Toronto
industrialist, ‘‘Canada isn’t
growing fast
create jobs for all these
educated people."’

The real truth, perhaps, is
that we have got university

‘education and advanced job

training badly mixed up, and

‘it’s the latter that seems to

But what went ©

enough to.

be most in. demand in the
tough, buck-conscious world |

of the later seventies.

.
toe
N

; COMMUNITY COLLEGES

That probably explains the |
tremendous
community colleges like
Capilano, with their empha-

sis on practical preparation

for specific types of work.
Many business people say
they prefer to hire commun-
ity college graduates, be-
cause they’re easier to train
than university ‘graduates.
They already understand the

basics of the job they apply |

for.

Universities, as they dev-
eloped in Europe from the
tenth century onward, orig-
inally had the function of
training society’s leaders in
government, religion, phil-
osophy and the arts. It was
an unashamedly elitist func-

‘tion, but still pretty valid

today if you take a look at.
some Of our current crop of
‘‘leaders’’—whose chief
qualifications for running our
lives is their ability to think
at the top of their lungs. —

| PARTICULAR JOB

_ But not everybody poss- |

esses the stuff of leadership,

. nor wants to. Many high

school graduates are more
interested in mastering ‘a:

particular kind ‘of job’ ne > oe
. enjoy, progressing init and “15.
being ‘adequately ‘paid for' 4

their skills. For them, today,
there are many excellent
avenues of advanced, post-
secondary training available
other than university—and

the disheartening statistics
-to which many of its’
overblown class of 76 are

temporarily reduced.

“Just ‘a little food for’
thought, as the senior kids
get back to thelr books next

_month for their last year in’

school. After all, if every one

~ Of us drove a current-model

Cadillac, our fuel and traffic
problems would be even
worsé-—and there wouldn't

be much distinction in

owning one,
\

continued from page 2

anently with a fine exhibition
of Sideways Crab Freestyle.

. His large pincer flashed a

last wave at us.

thorp, erinkled, =f
trent edge ’

We suppered—and very
well, too—on macaroni and
cheese, and I think we fell
asleep that night still debat-
ing whether or not the crab
had headed back towards the

oT

~~
way ae |:
Ps

[eaomemmediinetendtanedhcsaliiod

‘

' ai

hn

viet e ss
VY 7

«ft
PWD) a

am

jae", vg iar mii .
hy ge Weld ”

crab boat,

Later’ I found the missing —
diagram showing how to
anesthetize a crabe Here it is,

showing the points to be
plerced,

we '

shallow daprauion over
(Onl nerve canire (Ind
Plaraing paint)

mn fw closed ever
he mous!

tole i one ind herve
mire (iee' plavcing point
sould ment as eoinah

Ail led slightiy away from
ebay

' 4

' Pig. 4.~ UNDERSIDE OF A CRAB SHOWING THE POINTS TO BE PIERCED ah
"ste tail’ must be turned bask to reveal ihe hole over the hind nerve contre (feat plareing pin,

Hn this drawing the movable plates are closed topether over the mouth, ‘the small depression which isthe serond pereing polit should be looked far jus In
front of the movable plats in the middis ling, When tha erab comes fot planing the plates, will prohably ba lying in the cloned position, hut they may tbe in‘

.
J

the apen poullon as shown in ng 4,

he ‘ a

4
«

'

‘growth of

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