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National Post
a day ago
- Business
- National Post
CFA Institute 2025 Graduate Outlook Survey: Confidence in Finance Careers Soars Among Canadian Graduates
Article content Latest global survey of over 1,000 Canadian university students and graduates finds increased confidence in career prospects despite today's landscape. Article content TORONTO — The 2025 Global Graduate Outlook Survey released today by CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, found that Canadian university students and recent graduates believe that the finance industry offers the most promising career prospects in today's economic climate. Article content Confidence in the sector has nearly doubled in the past two years. 40 per cent of Canadian respondents ranked finance as the sector in which they felt most confident, compared to 21 per cent in the 2023 Graduate Outlook Survey. Further, confidence in finance careers surpassed all other industries by at least 20 per cent, including STEM (20 per cent), healthcare (19 per cent) and marketing (16 per cent). Article content 'Over the last few years, we have seen a significant increase in finance as a career choice for young people in Canada,' said Margaret Franklin, CFA, President and CEO, CFA Institute. 'That is reassuring. At CFA Institute, we believe finance serves an essential role in society and needs more committed young people to enter the field to help address the many societal challenges we face. That 93 per cent of graduates express a desire to pursue a career that positively impacts society is inspiring and gives me hope for the future of the profession.' Article content Artificial intelligence emerges as both a risk and opportunity Article content Despite optimism about the finance sector, students harbour significant concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential disruption. While a vast majority (87 per cent) express confidence in their AI literacy, nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) fear AI could negatively impact their career ambitions and make it harder to find a job. Article content Canadian students strongly recognize that AI skills are vital for career advancement. The survey indicates 35 per cent believe AI competencies will significantly enhance their job market prospects, outpacing traditional skills such as learning a foreign language (23 per cent). Indeed, 64 per cent of respondents prioritize soft skills (such as communication and collaboration) and quantitative skills (49 per cent) as the most critical factor for career advancement, far above connections (35 per cent), internships (34 per cent), academic grades (26 per cent), or the prestige of their university (25 per cent). Article content Commenting on the findings, Michael Thom, CFA, Managing Director, CFA Societies Canada, said, 'I'm glad to see that Canadian students and recent graduates are proactively seeking to equip themselves with specialized skills, particularly in AI which is fast becoming essential in the finance sector. In fact, half of Canadian respondents said they would be more interested in a job if it offers AI training. And 96 per cent recognize that upskilling, professional, or post-graduate qualifications will be essential to their future career success.' Article content 'This drive and eagerness to continue building skillsets is exciting to see from Canada's next generation of professionals, especially as adoption of AI continues to proliferate across industries in Canada, and the need for the next generation to be drivers of Canadian growth. AI literacy is becoming a non-negotiable skill in entry-level professional roles across Canada, and those who are able to combine their technical competence with interpersonal skills will be well suited to succeed in building their careers to meet the future. We are committed to helping these young professionals bolster their skills throughout each step of their careers with our education programs and research.' Article content What are graduates seeking in their careers? Article content Salary remains the primary career driver for Canadian graduates (56 per cent), though benefits and flexible working arrangements are also highly valued (54 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively). The evolving approach to career guidance also marks a generational shift, with students in Canada increasingly consulting professors (40 per cent), social media platforms (33 per cent), and influencers (27 per cent) for career insights. Article content The next generation prefers trusted human advisors, but other options are available Article content The findings also emphasize crucial implications for financial service providers seeking to engage effectively with the next generation, specifically the continued importance of trust in financial guidance, with 92 per cent of Canadian graduates placing the highest trust in human financial advisors for sound financial advice. Article content Graduates showed substantial reliance on other resources, including friends and family (88 per cent), and online financial education (79 per cent). Comparatively, they are less likely to trust technology-first advice, with only 67 per cent turning to AI assistants like Chat GPT followed by robo-advisors (64 per cent) and social media and influencers (62 per cent). Article content Financial security remains paramount, with 52 per cent of Canadian respondents citing financial peace of mind as their primary motivation for wealth-building. The next generation seeks long-term financial security and thinks that solid financial planning (57 per cent) and understanding of the markets (54 per cent) will help them achieve their financial goals. Article content The full results of the 2025 Graduate Outlook survey can be viewed here. Article content About CFA Institute Article content As the global association of investment professionals, CFA Institute sets the standard for professional excellence and credentials. We champion ethical behavior in investment markets and serve as the leading source of learning and research for the investment industry. We believe in fostering an environment where investors' interests come first, markets function at their best, and economies grow. With more than 200,000 charterholders worldwide across more than 160 markets, CFA Institute has 10 offices and 158 local societies. Find us at Article content Article content or follow us on LinkedIn and X at @CFAInstitute. Article content Enrolling in the CFA Program and earning the CFA charter prepares individuals for a variety of Article content career paths Article content in every sector of the global finance industry. Candidates can access all the essential study tools through the Article content Learning Ecosystem Article content including mock exams, the newly introduced Article content Practical Skills Module Article content and exam study tips. For more about the CFA Program, visit: Article content CFA Program Article content The 2025 CFA Institute Graduate Outlook Survey was fielded via an online survey from March 28-April 22, 2025, by Dynata with a sample of 9,023 respondents studying for a bachelor's degree or higher, or who have graduated with a bachelor's degree or higher within the last three years aged 18-25. Respondents were from Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Singapore, United Kingdom and the United States. Article content Article content Article content
Telegraph
05-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
So now it's official. The ‘graduate premium' is a myth
Have you ever thought about the main reason why school leavers keep choosing to go to university and higher education (HE) participation rates continue rising? Of course there are many reasons; a chance for young adults to get away from their parents, ease of application and acceptance, it looks more fun than going to work, an interest in the subject… But what is the main driver that underpins society's messaging and ends up channelling 18-year-olds into university rather than the workforce? Well, it's the perception that there is a 'graduate premium'; and put simply, the narrative goes like this – 'Don't worry about the debt, you're going to get paid more to make up for it'. And the HE sector well knows the importance of maintaining the societal belief in the graduate premium to drive up their customer numbers. They are relentless in their efforts, issuing constant public comments, articles and self-commissioned reports, often via sympathetic think-tanks, claiming the limitless powers of HE to deliver a graduate premium to all who enrol. But this positive advertising is starting to contrast starkly with increasing evidence, now in plain sight, of graduates' difficulties getting jobs as well as the low pay on offer of not much above minimum wage. There is a growing realisation that we are burdening too many of our young adults with morale-sapping student debt for their whole working life, with little or no corresponding improvement in their career prospects. There are also concerns that we are building up a dangerous stockpile of student loans that won't be repaid, only for the taxpayer to pick up the tab. Meanwhile, money is flowing freely into the bloated HE sector via unwitting students being used as pawns. The Government has announced a White Paper due out this summer regarding Post-16 Education. So given the importance of the notion of a graduate premium, you would assume that the Government has ensured there is robust informative data to inform policy-making. Well, sadly not. There is only one Government report, the annual Graduate Labour Market Statistics, which attempts to quantify the graduate premium; and my research shows that it is fundamentally flawed. Some will say that the IFS Graduate Lifetime Earnings report from 2020 also 'proves' a graduate premium, but my research argues that it is just as flawed. My findings are already supported by the Royal Statistical Society, and the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has also found a case in my favour and agreed that there is a problem with graduate premium data. The OSR has intervened and forced the hand of the Department for Education (DfE), who admitted in their release today that their figures are misleading – and to such an extent that even though this has been a mainstay of graduate outcome reporting since 2007, they have decided to cease publication. The DfE have agreed that a report demonstrating the difference between the career pay outcomes of those with equivalent A-level results is necessary, and they intend to produce it as part of their LEO data e.g. comparing school leavers with three Cs who attended university and those that did not. But the inadequacy of the data doesn't stop there. Using mathematical modelling, I've found that since we surpassed 30 per cent HE participation as long as 20 years ago, the marginal graduates added – increasingly being drawn from school leavers with relatively lower prior academic attainment – haven't earnt any graduate premium at all on average. Yet this phenomenon isn't explored in official Government statistics. When graduates do earn a premium, there is still the age-old statistical issue that correlation does not prove causation. For the majority of graduates, the job they end up doing will have no meaningful connection to the degree subject itself. So you must question why the official Government statistics keep churning out data that implies that studying for a degree was the main causation reason for the higher earnings, whereas in fact it is more likely their pre-existing attributes such as academic ability and ambition. Furthermore, when there is a link between the degree subject and the graduate's career, did they genuinely need to study academically for three whole years at great cost to themselves beforehand? Couldn't the course have been far shorter? And to what extent could it have been cheaper and more effective for them to start work at 18 and learn from colleagues, undergoing job-based formal and informal training in order to progress? You can often learn far more in three weeks of doing the job than you can in three years of theoretical study. The existing statistics don't explore this at all and by implication see their main role as demonstrating what degree is better than another. They act on the assumption that for non-manual work, everybody should get a 3-year degree before entering the workplace, rather than whether a degree is necessary at all. Until now, these inadequate statistics have allowed the sector to hijack the official figures and mislead the public and Government regarding the benefits of higher education, claiming that 'everybody' will be able to benefit from the supposed average premium. What is needed is root and branch reform of graduate statistics. I believe it would provide compelling evidence that surpassing around 25-30 per cent HE participation was a monumental mistake, and we certainly should never have let it reach the existing 50 per cent. The vicious spiral of never-ending increasing participation is condemning ever more of our young adults to pay huge amounts for unnecessary degrees. The Government's ideologically driven policies are led by a misguided false notion of 'opportunity for all'; but in the hands of a commercially-driven sector it has become a gross exercise in mass exploitation. The only way for this to end is for the Government to introduce a sensible, pragmatic cap on student numbers, calculated based on useful data – not the misleading data currently being produced. Paul Wiltshire is a parent campaigner against Mass HE and is the author of 'Why is the average Graduate Premium falling'
