The conventional model for educational trajectories expects students to graduate from high school before completing, in many cases, a post-secondary degree or certificate in a college, university, or other institution. Among those completing a Bachelor’s degree, it is expected that some of them will obtain a post-graduate degree, in a linear progression through a set of well-ordered transitions between degrees.
In contrast, this project is motivated by a need to describe the population of post-secondary students who instead follow non-linear or non-conventional education pathways. It draws on data from the Longitudinal and International Study of Adults, Waves 1-4. We set out to accomplish two objectives: 1) to present a statistical portrait of different educational pathways in Ontario and in Canada in order to identify the share of post-secondary students who follow non-conventional pathways such as completing several postsecondary degrees or certificate at the Bachelor level or below; 2) to evaluate the employment and labour market outcomes associated with different educational pathways (earnings, over-qualification, etc.). We also explore the interaction between different educational pathways and parental education or immigration backgrounds.