painting the picture of graduate employment: detailing the process of collecting, maintaining and...

CDPI 2013 Fall Conference

Embracing the “P” Word: Defining, Assessing, and Reporting Placement

in Today’s Economy.

Painting the picture of graduate employment: detailing the process of collecting, maintaining, and

in house report creation.

Ashley Botchis Assistant Director of Career Services: Data Analyst

Who am I?

• I am the Assistant Director of Career Services: Data Analyst for Harrison College. I’ve been with Harrison for 5 years, 3 in Career Services.  I obtained my Master’s degree from IUPUI in Sociology focused in quantitative and qualitative research.  I’ve worked directly with the Vice President of Compliance to determine best practices, policies, and forms to use to obtain employment data.  Additionally, I’ve partnered with our SQL Developer to create an in house reporting tool, which captures live employment data for Harrison College on an ongoing basis.  I’m also in charge of auditing placement data for quarterly and annual Accreditation reports.

Learning Outcomes

• Increased graduate employment survey compilation allows us to directly impact our graduate employment numbers and more closely track graduates, while meeting reporting standards

• Improved documentation and validation of results provides for excellence in compliance while eliminating “junk” data, but also provides opportunities for employer relationship building

• Insures alignment of student objectives and goals, and allows us to benchmark employment results to better serve graduates

• Increases the collective commitment across the organization to support the career development process

• Value to stakeholders both internal and external with additional reporting capabilities

How do YOU define placement?

About Harrison’s Grad Data Collection

• Harrison College is required to submit annual placement data on our graduates for our accreditation body, ACICS. While we have always tracked student placement data, within the last few years we’ve refined the process to ensure accuracy and broaden reporting capability. This includes a revamp of our collection forms, collection processes, data retention location, and developing an inclusive internal report with various capabilities. 

ACICS: Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools

When do we submit reports?

• November 1st each year

• Quarterly updates– September, December, March and June

• By Program

• By Campus– Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina

Moving to a New System

• Assembling a team to conceptualize the term placement– Guidelines by ACICS on what constitutes “placement”

• Creating forms

• Training

• Launching and adjusting the system

Define Placement• Based upon job titles included in the list of job titles published

by the institution for which the program prepares students– Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System– Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook

• Based upon the required use of skills learned in the student’s program as a predominant component of the job– Is the graduate utilizing skills and knowledge taught in the core courses of

the program of study? 0-19% 20-49% 50-100%?

• Based upon student attestations to the benefit of the training received from the program in obtaining a new position or maintaining a current position– What were their objectives… why did they choose to come to Harrison

College?

Creating Forms

Policies and Procedures approved by Executive team, housed under Compliance Division.

– Survey (Qualtrics)– Physical Forms– Email friendly forms– Verbal verification forms

• What else do we collect? Supporting exhibits? – Waivers, Employer Verification, Supporting

Documentation for Not Available categories

Data Collection: Survey• Qualtrics• https://co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?

SID=SV_6YEr5oJcyURsALz&Preview=Survey&BrandID=harrisoncollege

Considering Possible Issues

• How do we deal with virtual graduates– 2013 report year

• 100% Virtual Graduate survey data collection!

• Graduates who refuse to answer questions– Compliance language

• How do we collect data across multiple campuses– 14 campuses

Data Warehouse

Where do we house our data?

CSO: Career center automation solutions system designed to hold Employer activity modified to hold placement data.

What does the report look like?

Our report is emailed automatically on a set schedule to anyone in the organization who wants access. Its delivered as an excel file with multiple sheets.

New Objective lead reporting

New criteria changed how we report placement for 2014. Instead of In Field, Related Field and Out of Field, it has moved to Placed and Employed, Not Placed.

Report Cont.

Also on the first sheet of the excel, we can see a breakdown of how each campus is contributing to the overall number.

Report Cont.

Additional sheets on the excel can breakdown by term. In this case, quarterly figures.

Report Cont.

We also have a raw data sheet detailing each graduate’s situation, including their employment and program.

Report Cont.

Finally, we decided to include a sheet to show how each program is doing and average salary data for those programs. This is becoming increasingly important with gainful employment guidelines.

Are there other reporting capabilities your institutions

may want?

What can we do with the data?

• We are able to find out which graduates may need additional services based on survey results

• Investigate particular programs that may be struggling

• By following up with employer verifications, we can connect with local employers and develop ongoing relationships

• Benchmark annual data and set newly developed goals

What can we do with the data? Cont.

Quicker ad hoc reporting capabilities with increased data collection

– Stakeholder reporting– Marketing– Employer and Graduate surveys– State reporting / renewals– Brain Drain

Internal buy in• Cross Functional support by developing

relationships with various departments including Program Coordinators, Deans and Registration Services.

• Who uses our report today?– Provost and Associate Provost– Institutional Research Manager– Campus Presidents– Senior Vice President of Operations– Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance  – Directors of Career Services

Questions?