Based on the longest running panel study of its kind in Canada, this book examines events in the lives of a generation of Ontario residents who graduated from grade twelve in 1973. The study recreates the world of the early 1970s in which these high school students faced the future. It recounts their educational and occupational experiences in the late 1970s, follows their vocational and career pathways during the subsequent decade, and searches for patterns in their personal and family lives through the late 1980s and early 1990s. By painting a portrait of a little-known cohort, this interdisciplinary project provides a wealth of information about the links between schooling and employment in a time of economic instability and addresses the different ways in which women and men attempt to reconcile familial and occupational demands.

The study employs life course theory, which explores the dynamic relationship between the individual and the social order. Structural forces such as social class, gender, ethnicity, and race played an unmistakable role in the lives of the Class of '73. So, too, did human agency. Using survey research, historical documentation, in-depth interviews, and personal biographies, the authors seek to explain one generation's emergence from adolescence into adulthood in an era characterised by both opportunity and uncertainty.

How do Canadian students perceive and prepare for the world of work? To what extent do gender, race, region and social class shape their aspirations, opportunities, and experiences? Transitions: Schooling and Employment in Canada presents new research by scholars from across Canada engaged in the study of youth, schooling, employment and social change. The aim of the book is to describe the multiple transitions that young adults encounter in their journey from school to the world of paid employment. Different contexts and conditions affect these transitions and the authors employ historical, qualitative and quantitative methodologies in identifying them. Particular attention is paid to the themes of gender, socio-economic status, ethnocultural origin, and region. In analyzing their findings, the authors apply a wide range of theories, including developmental, sociological, and social/psychological. In addition, a number of the essays have implications for policy-making in the areas of education and employment. The contributors to this volume explore the experiences of rural youth in Nova Scotia, blacks in Toronto, and high school students in Vancouver. They suggest new approaches to researching native communities and the lives of female adolescents.