Competent Pathways to Work: PISA Scores and Labour Market Returns

An important societal and individual outcome of a country’s education system is the level of success experienced by youth as they enter the labour market. In 2006, the point at which the latest data from YITS are available for this report, Canadian youth were 21 years old and many were only beginning the journey into the world of work. Hence, this chapter represents an initial analysis of the labour market outcomes of Canadian youth. It examines the associations between achievement in PISA 2000 and a number of background characteristics with respect to two key labour market outcomes: earnings and the likelihood of unemployment. By age 21, there is some evidence about the relationship between skills, as measured by PISA and labour market outcomes, but it is most likely still too early to tell whether any potential impact could strengthen the youths’ careers. These results represent an important first look at these outcomes that can be built on as the results of YITS 2008 and 2010 become available.