Opportunity

As of 2020, over 5.7 million students were enrolled in the kindergarten to grade 12 education system across Canada. These students were enrolled in over 14,600 schools in Canada's ten provinces and three territories from coast to coast to coast (The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, n.d). 

Funding for these schools comes primarily from provincial and territorial governments with funding generally being allocated based on enrollment. With more funding, schools are able to hire more teachers and support staff which allows them to provide more opportunites for extra curricular activities, more access to specialty programming, better supports for complex needs students, more opportunites for interventions, and much more. In other words, the higher enrollment a school has, the better programming it is able to provide. 

Schools are therefore always looking for ways to keep students enrolled and attending, especially in highschool grades where dropout rates increase significantly.  

One of the major challenges highschool students face is planning for their future after grade 12. 

When it comes to planning for their future, specifically further education, highschool students face many barriers. These barriers include the belief that they are not academically competent, lack of feeling connected with college culture, lack of understanding of the college application process, financial issues, and a lack of collabration between highschools and colleges resulting in a difficult transition (Edress, 2017). 

In another study, parental support was found to be more influential than any of the barriers listed above when it comes to college or career success after highschool (Mobley et. al, 2017). According the authors, there is a greater need for parents and families to be involved with schools when it comes to career and program planning. 

Additionally, Mobely et. al (2017) found that when students have a plan for what they are going to do after highschool, and are enrolled in programs of study focused on a specific career pathway, they are more likely to stay focused on completing their grade 12 education and experienced reduced absenteeism. 

Next we will look at a product that matches this opportunity.