Thank you.
With the $225 million in additional funds that we're requesting over five years, we project that we will be able to support 14,000 students annually. At a 90% graduation rate, depending on what year they're in, the maximum number of graduates would be somewhere around 12,600. This is much needed in communities and it also serves the broader population.
Interestingly enough, we are told by our students that over 50% of the students we're now supporting have continued on to a second degree. That's very encouraging and a very new trend among our students. More than 42% have jobs and 50%-plus tell us they are working in fields that support indigenous people. There is the opportunity to create change in communities, and we all know we need change. It doesn't matter which social indicator you look at in the country, indigenous people are at the bottom. That's why I ask, no matter what we're talking about, should we take on housing, should we improve governance, should we do more development? What should we do? All of those things require capacity. That's why we think education is the best way in.
I have some more numbers for top 10 fields of study we supported last year. I mentioned STEM, where we supported 649 students last year; business, 452; educators, 601; nurses, 391; doctors, 200; law, 191; and I could go on. These are the stories Canadians don't hear about. This is the potential we're growing.
I saw this morning the the number of jobs increased in Canada in September. I'm excited by that. I'm worried, though, that the labour force participation rate of indigenous people is almost 5% below that of non-indigenous people. If you look at the 15-to-24 age group, you see that it's 12.4% lower. We need to change that. If we do close that gap, potentially one-fifth of labour force growth in Canada would be indigenous youth by 2036. That's encouraging and promising, but only if we make an investment now.