Statistics confirm how important it is for parents to open a dialogue with their teens and encourage teens to take math. Even if a teen doesn't have a career path in mind yet, taking math will open doors down the road. Math skills are an advantage for individual workers, but all Canadians benefit when Canada's workforce can take advantage of math- and science-based innovation, and when workers have good critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
High school graduates with strong math skills tend to work in jobs with better job security and higher salaries than graduates without a math background. Jobs that use math pay, on average, about 25% more than other types of work!
Today, many employment opportunities already require math skills, and this is likely to increase. Currently, however, less than half of Canadian students take math until grade 12, and 70% of top jobs, including skilled trades, require science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
It might seem like teens don't pay attention to what parents say, but research and statistics show that parents have a lot of influence over the decisions teens make about education and the future. In fact, 76% of students say their parents have the greatest amount of influence on their "educational direction". When parents are involved, students are more likely to attend school regularly, achieve higher grades, graduate, and go on to post-secondary education.
Research provided by Let's Talk Science (http://www.letstalkscience.ca/About-Us/Research-and-Publications)