FUTURE UP IN AIR
Post-university plans in turmoil for grads forced to adapt to a shrivelling job market amid COVID-19
Josseline Ramos-figueroa is an international student from Peru who was hoping to finish her PHD at the University of Saskatchewan in August. But the pandemic has blown up her plans and those of many other students in the province.
Kaitlyn Kitzan has spent the last four years making sure she’d be well set up to land a stable job after finishing university.
She did everything right: she volunteered, networked and got work experience in the agribusiness industry.
She never anticipated a pandemic would disrupt all her plans.
Before COVID -19 caused widespread disruptions, Kitzan had a full-time job waiting for her when she finished her Bachelor of Science in agribusiness at the University of Saskatchewan this spring.
It was “devastating” when she received the call in March informing her that the offer was being rescinded because physical distancing requirements made it impossible for her to do the job.
“I didn’t even want to tell my parents because I had just signed a one-year lease in Saskatoon, so I was really upset,” Kitzan said.
“I didn’t tell anybody for a few days. I just sat at home trying to figure out what I was going to do.”
As COVID-19 disrupts business operations and companies cut back their workforces, new university graduates with limited work experience are entering a precarious job market. Many, like Kitzan, are having to adapt their plans and be flexible.
JOBS IN SHORT SUPPLY
After Kitzan learned her job was not going ahead, she phoned companies that had been hiring months earlier, but hardly anyone was looking to take on a new hire. When companies were hiring, Kitzan said she found it difficult to compete against experienced workers who recently had been laid off.
Canada posted an unemployment rate of 13 per cent in April, the second highest on record. Overall, 5.5 million people in Canada have been affected by job loss and reduced hours due to COVID -19, the report says.
Statistics Canada noted this month that the job losses and reduction in job opportunities because of the pandemic “have had a particularly strong impact on students.” The employment rate for students aged 20 to 24 was 29 per cent in April, down from 53 per cent the month before.
Before the pandemic disrupted the job market, Tiana Kirstein, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from the U of S this spring, had planned to do some form of clerical work for a year. The money she’d earn would go toward paying for a trip to Europe and would set her up to go back to school to do a master’s degree starting in 2021. But she hasn’t been able to find a job, and if she can’t secure one soon, she may have to delay her return to school to avoid racking up debt.
“Right now I’m pretty much looking for any job at this point. I don’t want to get one that I’ll absolutely hate, but at the same time I feel like I should be going for anything at all,” she says.
LICENSING EXAMS POSTPONED
Many health care workers are continuing to work during the pandemic, but some recent graduates who had planned to work in hospitals or other health care settings this spring are finding themselves unable to because sittings of qualifying exams that certify them to practise in their professional fields have been delayed.
Marissa Fradette, who graduates from the U of S College of Pharmacy this spring, says she might not be able to practise as a licensed pharmacist until January 2021. She had planned to write both parts of her licensing exam in May, but instead will have to sit the test in August and November.
For now, she’s picking up shifts at a pharmacy as an intern student, making less than she would be as a licensed pharmacist. She says even the low-paying position is better than none because soon, she’ll have to start repaying student loans and needs an income.
Fradette said some pharmacies are able to accommodate the situation, but it’s been “confusing ” for her and her peers to navigate applying for jobs because they can’t work as full pharmacists for another six months, even though they’ve completed all of their training.
“It’s just frustrating because after all this time in school, all I want to do — all my colleagues want to do — is just get out there into the workforce, especially as someone that’s in health care,” Fradette said.
“Our job is essential and I feel like I should be out there.”
FEELING UNPREPARED
When the U of S College of Nursing concluded student practicums early in response to the COVID -19 pandemic, Richard Proctor felt lucky that he had completed enough of the requirements that he could still graduate this spring. Work placements are a required capstone for several programs, and Proctor knows some students in nursing whose graduation has been postponed until they get the required hours.
But Proctor wishes he could have done his full practicum; he thinks it would have made him more confident as he enters the workforce.
“I don’t feel quite as prepared for when I end up an RN. I feel at a slight disadvantage,” he said.
New nurse graduates in Saskatchewan receive a temporary nurse licence before they sit their licensing exam; Proctor is currently looking for a registered nursing job in acute care on the same floor where he took his practicum. He hopes to sit his licensing exam this summer; he had initially planned to write the exam in June, but that date has been pushed back a month.
CLOSURES COULD DELAY THESIS COMPLETION
Josseline Ramos-figueroa, a PHD candidate in the department of chemistry at the U of S who had hoped to wrap up her thesis in early August, said that timeline has been pushed back because the university is closed and she can’t get into her lab. She is waiting for the school to announce its plans for reopening laboratories so she can figure out when she can complete the remaining four weeks of experiments.
As an international student from Peru, delays in completing her thesis have serious ramifications for her study permit and funding. It’s a precarious situation and she doesn’t know what things look like beyond August.
“We are now waiting week by week what’s going to happen,” she said. “So if it doesn’t (open), I will be in a very difficult position because it means I won’t be able to graduate by August and finish experiments by the fall.”
STAYING OPTIMISTIC
Though the class of 2020 faces challenges, some students are embracing the uncertainty as best they can.
Proctor and Fradette are using the extra — and unexpected — time to study before licensing exams.
Ramos-figueroa said she doesn’t know when her thesis will be done, but she’s already searching for a post-doctoral program at a university in North America or Europe. With more funding being earmarked for COVID -19 research, she knows this may be an opportunity to explore a new area of research she hadn’t thought of before.
“I think we need to be very flexible to adapt to changes that happen,” she said.
Kitzan, who returned home to help out on her family farm near the Village of Theodore once the university moved classes online, is establishing herself as a freelancer for agricultural communications companies. She’s picking up short contracts as often as she can and embracing the risks of being an entrepreneur — a career path she hadn’t previously considered.
“This time has really allowed me to work on myself and see what does my future look like instead of just jumping right into my future and not really sure what I really want to do,” she said.