What To Consider if You're Considering College — Taking Action

Bill Morrison · Ken S. Coates

May 2015 · Dundurn

About this ebook

Going to college used to be a passport to future success, but that's no longer the case. For some students, it's still a good choice that leads to a successful career after graduation, but for many their degrees are worthless pieces of paper. Choose the wrong program and graduation is more likely to lead to disillusionment and debt than a steady paycheque.

Yet parents, guidance counselors, and politicians still push higher education as if it's the only option for building a secure future. In this book, Ken S. Coates and Bill Morrison set out to explore the many educational opportunities and career paths open to Canadian high-school students and those in their twenties. This book is designed to help young adults decide whether to pursue a degree, enrol for skills training, or investigate one of the many other options that are available.

In this special excerpt, we consider the world outside academia and some real-world options, such as: 1. Volunteering as a Launch Pad, 2. Travel: Discover the World, 3. Entrepreneurship: Why Wait to Be Your Own Boss? 4. Give Work a Chance, and 5. Apprenticeship and the Skilled Trades. This book will help you consider all the options in a clear, rational way.

About the author

Bill Morrison was a professor and administrator at universities in Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia, and a visiting professor in the United States before he retired in 2010. Morrison has published fourteen books, twelve of them in collaboration with Kenneth Coates. He lives in Ladysmith, B.C.

Ken S. Coates is a prolific author whose works include Canada’s Colonies, The Modern North, North to Alaska, many academic books, and documentaries. He has served as a consultant to northern governments and organizations and is Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan. He lives in Saskatoon.