I would be in agreement with Jennifer on that.
My thinking is that there has to be a better-managed school-to-work transition period. Certainly teachers can't be expected to understand a career path that they didn't take. So awareness is big with guidance counsellors and teachers.
When I speak to apprentices, they tell me they weren't encouraged to go into the trades, though they can make better money than a lot of their contemporaries who are going off to university. They were still told that this is what you do when you can't do anything else, and it's still seen as the career of last resort. That's not a positive way to respond to the needs of our economy.
I think there is some work to be done. When I say talk about career awareness, I mean let's have an accurate conversation about what opportunities exist, and about how no matter what direction they choose to go in for their careers, there are many opportunities. But to encourage people who enjoy that creative, hands-on type of work, we have to value it the same as we value any other type of post-secondary education.