Our methodology

Career Mapping addresses a significant gap in labour market and post-secondary education planning research. It is a Pardy Group project designed to tackle long standing wicked problems such as:

• What occupations do Liberal Arts graduates attain with their BA degrees?
• How do Liberal Arts graduates enhance and grow their careers?
• In what employment sectors do Liberal Arts graduates work? (i.e., Business, Technology, Health, etc).

Current labour market and career planning resources that strictly use government issued quantitative data do not adequately address these questions.

Pardy Group is the original creators, developers, and researchers of what is still considered BC’s premier post-secondary resource EducationPlannerBC.ca.  For more than 25 years our team has worked with numerous government organizations such as, the Post-secondary Application Service (PASBC), BCCampus, WorkBC, and the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT), to produce reliable education planning resources that are accessible to students, parents, faculty, and academic advisors. We have also worked closely with provincial post-secondary and secondary school advisory boards, as well as multiple community and employer stakeholders. The Pardy Group team has helped these organizations use Stats Canada and the BC Student Outcomes data to map employment outcomes and occupational pathways from individual post-secondary programs.

However, the results are marginally helpful to Liberal Arts students because the methodology commonly used is only able to aggerate data at a broad field of study level and not at the individual program level. This data also does not provide the analysis and information needed for students to explore and realize the transferability of their education to a variety of occupations. While using data is the first step, it cannot demonstrate the wide variety of program-to-occupation connections that are attainable. It also cannot map the actual career journeys and success of Liberal Arts graduates.

Dr. Linda Pardy, the principal researcher for this project, knows from her experiences as an Associate Dean of Students, Humanities and Social Sciences and an Associate Professor how challenging it is for Liberal Arts students to navigate their first job and the multiple education and employment transitions they are likely to face in their careers, whether anticipated or not.  Linda understands why students often find themselves questioning the value of doing a degree. She understands the immense economic pressure these student face. She knows campus career services and faculty don’t have the information they need to guide and mentor students pursuing Liberal Arts degrees. And she realizes the impact on the growing numbers of students experiencing anxiety, stress, and mental health challenges because they cannot envision a sustainable or hopeful future for themselves.

Career mapping addresses the wicked problem of demonstrating the value, transferability, pathways, growth opportunities, and relevance of  a Liberal Arts degree. It also demonstrates how a Liberal Arts degree is the education needed for a sustainable career that fosters career mobility and security, and provides multiple ways for students to flourish.

Career Mapping uses a robust data collection process that employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. The data is triangulated and further analyzed through stakeholder consultations. The data collection process includes:

• Data collection from Stats Canada and BC Student Outcomes.
• Analysis of the Education Needed information reported by the National Occupations Classification (NOC).
• Comparative analysis of the US Occupational Outlook data and the Australian, New Zealand and United Kingdom publicly available labour market information.
• Environmental scans and analysis of over 45+ Canadian universities reporting on where their graduates are working.
• Environmental scan and analysis of 20+ leading Liberal Arts universities in the US.
• Review of program-to-occupation advice provided by over 40 career advising publications.

The next phase works to address our curiosity about:

• What steps a student would need to take to secure a specific occupation. In other words – how did the person get this occupation?
• What qualifications are employers asking for when advertising jobs?
• How do employer job requirements align to what the NOC reports as the required education needed?
• What occupations require specific majors or specific graduate studies?
  • What are the admission requirements for these programs?
• What occupations require graduates to do additional professional certifications or employer-lead training?
• What are the alternative or emerging job titles not used in the NOC, but that are commonly found in job postings?

To get at this data we:

• Use persona and journey mapping to explore and plot how people get from their specific degree to reported occupations. We analyze and map the graduation-to-occupational routes from each academic program. It is clear that students are doing much more than navigating straight career paths. Our data continues to capture this so that we can provide advice on what steps a student may need to take to access specific occupations.
• Review the admission requirements for more than 150 pre-professional and graduate programs offered at more than 80 post-secondary institutions in Canada to answer the question: “With a degree in X could a person take further study in Y to achieve a new career goal?”
• Monitor job ads (e.g., Job Banks Canada, Indeed, LinkedIn, Jobillico, Monster, Career Beacon, Talent Egg, Zip Recruiter, Neuvoo, Public Service Commission, and Civic Jobs Canada) and compare and contrast the education needed as outlined in the NOC with what employers are requiring. We incorporate this information into the “education needed” mapping data set as appropriate.
• Analyze entry-to-employment requirements for both regulated and non-regulated occupations in Canada.

This data helps us identify the differences between provinces and where employer requirements are more important than the exact degree, major or minor.

Often labour market data is already outdated when it becomes available to the public and often it is not as responsive to the economy or employment trends as those making career decisions need. It is also often produced by researchers skilled with data analytics, but lacking the background to ask the questions important to students, career seekers, and employers.

This is why we continuously conduct literature reviews and environmental scans on topics related to undergraduate education planning, the value of post-secondary education, career development, innovations in Liberal Arts education, economic trends, and employer needs.

We stay current on work being done by organizations such as:

• The Labour Market Information Council (LMiC)
• The Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER)
• National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)  
• CERIC: Advancing Career Development in Canada
• American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

We are always asking questions!

This allows us to expand greatly on a non-linear perspective of employment. It allows us to map the steps and education choices someone with, for example, an undergrad History degree would have done to become a business leader, enter the tech sector, or apply to medical school.

Having a long history of developing provincial and national education and career-related resources, as well as conducting several major research projects, we were fortunate to have access to both students and post-secondary stakeholders. We value and appreciate the guidance and wisdom our stakeholders bring to this project! As James Surowiecki reminded us back in 2004 in his book The Wisdom of Crowds – it is the sharing of insights, experiences, and expertise of individuals from the “crowd” that will produce the best results to complex problems.

Consultation with our stakeholders determines the types of information needed to demystify the gaps between labour market information, education planning, and career planning. Their wisdom and curiosities inform the evolving mapping processes, information dissemination, and the nomenclature and design elements needed to display the career maps and information.

We are thankful and inspired by the ongoing wisdom of our stakeholders!