THE IMPACT OF OVEREDUCATION ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF CANADIAN GRADUATES TAKING CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR JOB OR CAREER PURPOSES

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to explore how the probability of taking continuing education programs towards no degree for job or career purposes after graduation will be affected by overeducation, which can be defined as having actual education levels that exceed requirements for the job. Using the data from the National Graduates Survey – Class of 2005-Public User Microdata File (PUMF) (Statistics Canada 2007), a probit model was estimated to test the hypothesis that graduates who are already overeducated would take fewer continuing education programs for job or career purposes. Possible reasons for the negative relationship between overeducation and the likelihood of taking continuing education programs after graduation were examined based on human capital theory.