Topportunity Talks: Life Choices among English-speaking Youth in the Eastern Townships

A report on a set of eleven focus groups (high school, CEGEP and vocational students) conducted in 2004 as part of an ongoing program to inform Eastern Townships English-speaking youth about career opportunities in the Eastern Townships. The focus groups explored English-speaking youths' ideas and attitudes about their current opportunities, future career choices, employment/life action plan, where they see themselves living in the future and why. Canada Census 2001 data show that English-speaking youth in the Townships are twenty-seven percent less likely to graduate from high school than French-speaking youth, and are more likely to drop out than English-speaking youth in other areas of Quebec. Studies have also shown that unemployment rate among English-speaking youth aged 15-24 is thirty-one percent higher than among French speakers in the region. Those who are employed tend to have a lower income than their French-speaking counterparts.

Lennoxville, QC

Townshippers’ Association

2005

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