Should workers be held back by lack of formal schooling?

Yes

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by Stephanie Kjaerbaek

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Many people I know have education and skills but are underemployed. They often work in construction or the hospitality industry. A teenager can walk off the street into any fancy bar or lounge. He can obtain a job without experience and education. Many of these people are making very good money for their age.

It is unfair that people like myself, trained in accounting and office administration, are not offered jobs because of lack of experience. Often, at career fairs and employment centers, people are told to go back to school. After obtaining education, they find it impossible to obtain even a part-time or full-time position in their field. The employer wants experience.

Canada is a nepotist's society. The people who benefit are the people known to the employer. Education, merit, personality and experience do not matter. It is about who-knows-who. Many people have felt duped by an economic system that requires education only to have it discarded later because the employer wants experience. When people go to talk to employers about jobs, they are told to get an education first before a job.

Oftentimes, if people have experience, they are offered lower quality jobs in the industry. People keep talking about overqualified individuals. If somebody was overqualified, he simply wouldn't be offered a job. I have applied for dozens of waitressing jobs only to be offered busser and hostess positions. The management would be hiring for serving and ads would be posted for these positions. As I have several years of experience as a waitress, I am not being offered this due to excessive education and experience. I have a diploma in office administration and accounting, several credits towards an arts degree, First Aid training and could be certified for a Human Service Worker certificate if I applied.

Given this background, I have been frustrated by the lack of relevance in the employment world. For years, I pounded the pavement in search of an office position and received offers of telemarketing and sales instead. It is amazing to me that someone would offer a job that is not being requested when the job is not filled to a person with more experience. The problem is not about overqualification. It is about treating people with the utmost disrespect when he or she does what is necessary to succeed. That is also a Canadian attitude, one people will disagree with, but I have lived in this country my whole life. I fully believe that employers treat people with disrespect, especially women, older people, minorities and gays. They even have issues with single people, divorced women, women without kids who are married, women with kids who are single and on and on.

They complain they can't get a 'nice little housewife' to work for the, but they are asking for flexible hours at low wages. A housewife can't be called in at the last minute if she has kids. She has a schedule and demands that must be worked around. She may not want to work on a full-time basis. Her husband may not want her to. I have applied at jobs where the employer has insisted on demanding personal information about sexual orientation, marital status, overall income, education, whether or not I have a car, where I live, etc. None of this is his business. It is illegal under law to ask these questions at an interview. It is discriminatory for them to be considered factors in hiring someone.

The wage structures, employment standards, hiring practices, industry management and company policy of these places must be overhauled. This is why I oppose letting people without education and experience get ahead so quickly. They should have to pay their dues. What is wrong is when people who want a second chance do not get one, when people with desire and ambition are sidelined for less-qualified individuals and when people are discriminated against. It is a myth that overqualified people are hired for jobs they do not qualify for. It is an endemic problem that underachieving people get jobs and then take off The employers had the chance to hire people who wanted a job but refused to do so.

They do this in many ways. They do not offer full-time positions. They do not combine positions to create a full-time job. They underpay people. They demand excessive education and experience for low skill jobs. They refuse to hire people who are qualified in favor of people who are qualified. They do not offer short-term positions that could lead to long-term opportunities. They want people to be available all the time for part-time positions. They refuse to accommodate a schedule for another job. They demand people quit other positions. They refuse to pay overtime for work. They alter schedules without informing anyone on the phone, in person or through email. Then when this person doesn't show up for a shift he wasn't aware of, the employer blames the person. He puts up a schedule and changes it five times.

He ignores scheduling requests and restrictions for students and people with kids. He assigns people with health problems and disabilities to projects they can't handle physically. They lie about hiring people on a short-term basis. They cross the line in interviews by demanding too much education. Recently, I was offered a job in a restaurant only to have it transferred to another store and then transferred again. Though I was originally hired for that position, they tried to make me go to another interview at another location. I decided I could wait out other offers as there are better ones available. I could find something else myself. They act like it is some exclusive job at barely $1.50 over minimum wage. They call twenty-five to thirty hours a week 'full-time'. This kind of mistreatment of employees in very common in Canada.

I have heard many foreigners and immigrants complain about it. They were all hard-working individuals from places such as Jamaica, India, Japan, Iraq, Germany, Australia, Pakistan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Israel and Russia. They resented the low wages, excessive educational demands, rejection of experience, demand for unrelated experience, lack of hours and other conditions. People get tired of having to work on an on-call basis for a dishwashing position or some other low skill job. Nobody cares to be put through two or three interviews, etc. when he brings in a resume with references. Then the manager makes him fill out an application form when the information is on the resume. He demands a cover letter for a housekeeping or line cook position. Many of the people in these jobs have education and experience. Many women end up working as waitresses and telemarketers in addition to other retail jobs and so on.

It seems to me that people who are functionally illiterate, undereducated and lacking in experience need help with those issues through government programs and community resources. They do not deserve to receive jobs that skilled people are fighting for.

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