Watch above: It used to be a big competition with Alberta for Saskatchewan grads but with jobs aplenty in this province more seem content to stay put. Meaghan Craig takes a look at the ups and downs for our future leaders.
SASKATOON – This week, 3,400 eligible graduates from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) will cross the stage at TCU Place as part of this year’s spring convocation. Students are the leaders of tomorrow but will they be doing it in Saskatchewan or wandering elsewhere for opportunities?
“About half of our graduates stay in Saskatchewan, live all throughout the province of Saskatchewan. There’s about another 13 per cent that go to Alberta and about 70 per cent of our graduates stay in western Canada,” said Melana Soroka, director of alumni relations at the university.
University officials say this latest series of graduates will join the ranks of the more than 143,000 alumni living around the world.
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Top among the cities for these graduates to live in; 35,379 or roughly 25 per cent of total graduates stay in Saskatoon, 8,567 have picked up and moved to Calgary and 7,396 call Regina home.
With jobs aplenty in all disciplines in the province, migration to Alberta has slowed say officials.
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“They can find jobs for sure, mining in particular, we’re finding the professional industries like law, accounting and we even have veterinary students of course, the veterinary students can step up practice anywhere in the province and be quite successful,” said Soroka.
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The double-edge sword, the quality of graduates coming out of the U of S doesn’t always work in our favour.
“We have such excellent graduates especially in engineering that companies outside of the province are desirous of hiring our students and so that’s good in a way because that means our students are getting jobs, careers but on the other hand we would sure like them to stay here in the province,” remarked Dr. Gordon Barnhart, U of S interim president.
On Wednesday, not only were many of these graduates from the College of Education planning on staying in Saskatchewan, they’re planting roots in small towns.
Lindi Stroeder, a mother of three, lives in Lanigan, Sask. with her husband who is the vice-principal at the local school and hopes to find employment there as well.
“I just like how everybody knows everybody and it’s a nice feeling when you’re growing up with kids in a community, I like that,” said Stroeder.
Michael Prebble accepted a teaching position in Saskatoon the day of graduation after he and his partner carefully weighed their options.
“The teaching opportunities in London or overseas are crazy so lots of students are going over there,” said Prebble. “It’s a big world and they want to experience lots of it. It doesn’t mean they hate Saskatoon or Saskatchewan it just means they want to experience something else.”
The down-side? The quality of life the province can provide can come at a cost.
“As you get older you want to buy a house and raise a family and it’s absolutely getting to be where it’s very expensive to raise family, I think that it’s rare that you see a one-income family any more because of what the prices are,” added Stroeder.
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