Youth in Transition Survey: Update of the education and labour market pathways of young adults

More and more youth have undertaken postsecondary education, either at college, university or a private institution, and have taken their place in the labour market, according to a four-year study of major transitions in the lives of Canada's young people.
The Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), which tracked movements between high school, postsecondary education and the labour market, interviewed young people and measured their activities at three stages: in 1999, 2001 and 2003.
Survey data show that during this four-year period, nearly three-quarters of the young people in this study underwent some form of transition, either between high school and postsecondary education or between their studies and the workplace.
However, a more meaningful finding concerns the steadily rising proportion of young people aged 22 to 24 who undertook some form of postsecondary education since the start of the survey. In 1999, 62% of young people had gone to a postsecondary institution at some point. By 2003, over three-quarters (76%) had done so.
Over time, the proportion of youth who had graduated from a postsecondary institution soared. In 1999, 7% of young people were postsecondary graduates. By 2003, this proportion had increased more than six times to 44%.
As of December 2003, about one out of every five young people aged 22 to 24 was still pursuing postsecondary accreditation and had not yet graduated.