Exports Its Youth

The youth of Brandon usually leave after the end of high school or post secondary training. There are very few jobs around for anyone beyond entry-level jobs. The possible exception to this is the occasional availability of jobs for people who are able to take over their parents businesses. However, as large box stores and chain retailing enterprises locate in Brandon to serve the regional population, even these jobs may be diminishing.

This pattern of urban migration is general for all rural areas of course, and Brandon is no exception. There is a great deal of talk about trying to develop jobs in order to retain or regain the loss of youth to the area, but not a lot of success in doing so.

The interesting thing is that so little attention is focused by Brandon citizens on the location to which students are headed, and preparing them for that move, either in terms of the needs they will encounter there or the contributions they could make there if intentionally prepared. I do not see a lot of effort being made to bridge the transition between the two towns and become, as it were, a "farm team" for some other city like Calgary, where so many young people go. Perhaps some day in the future, we will start hearing feedback from target cities, "I don't know what it is they are doing in Brandon, but they sure are exporting some fine young people".

Media Based Solutions

Further Resources

Studies of the worldwide phenomenon of rural-urban youth migration, as well as resources abound on the Internet as the following links indicate.

Navagation