Successful Dissertation Defense – Erica Thomson

Congratulations to Erica Thomson for successfully defending her dissertation on May 28.  Her dissertation is titled: Build back better: Challenges, concerns, and Covid-19 in Canadian education and career development.

Abstract

This research focuses on two industries during the COVID-19 pandemic: education and career development. The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions in these industries, and many others across Canada. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to understand how both were impacted by the shift to virtual or online services that took place during the pandemic, who was affected most by these shifts, and how we can use the learnings during this time to build back better and create proactive measures against future disruptions. Three separate works form the foundation of this dissertation and come together to answer these questions. It finds that both industries identified rising mental health concerns as a post-pandemic challenge, and that the inequalities present prior to COVID-19 were exaggerated as a result of structural and logistical barriers to services.