St. Clair’s “satisfactoriness” continued to climb in 2016-17, placing it in the top five among Ontario’s two dozen college’s in several “quality categories” of a comprehensive provincial survey.
St. Clair College students and graduates believe their educations prepare them well for the employment marketplace - and that belief is well-founded, considering that 84 percent of them secure jobs within six months of completing their studies.
St. Clair's excellence as an academic institution and job-trainer is further emphasized by the fact that 88.7 percent of employers are "satisfied/very satisfied" with the job-performance of graduates who they've hired.
Those were among the findings of the 2016-17 Key Performance Indicator (KPI) survey results, released by Colleges Ontario in April.
KPIs have been mandated by the provincial Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (MAESD) for the past 19 years as a means of evaluating colleges' academic performance. Several of the assorted surveys also play a role in the formula that provides provincial grant-funding to the two dozen public colleges.
The most recent survey results show that:
• 81.3 percent of St. Clair's 2015-16 graduates were "satisfied/very satisfied" with the academic quality of their educations. The provincial average "Graduate Satisfaction Rating" (among Ontario's 24 public colleges) was 78.8 percent. St. Clair’s rank among the two dozen colleges was sixth;
• Six months after graduation, when the survey was conducted, 84.0 percent of those 2015-16 St. Clair graduates had secured jobs. Province-wide, 83.0 percent of 2015-16 Ontario college graduates had found employment within six months of completing their studies St. Clair’s rank was tenth;
• 88.7 percent of the employers who hired those 2015-16 graduates told KPI surveyors that they were "satisfied/very satisfied" with the job-preparedness of their new employees. The province-wide average in this KPI category was 91.2 percent. St. Clair was 20th among the 24 colleges in this category.
[The Employer Satisfaction KPI has always been an “iffy” one. During the phone interviews of recent grads, those individuals are asked to voluntarily give the survey company the contact information for their employers – and, also, give their permission for the surveyors to contact their new bosses. Many of the grads refuse to do that, because they don’t want their employers to be pestered. As a result, the sample size of surveyed employers can actually be quite small … and that, in turn, can severely skew the results. Historically, St. Clair has boasted a 90-percent-plus figure in this category, reflecting the province-wide average. So, this year’s result appears to be something of an anomaly, that may have been caused by a poor response rate.]
In addition to the snapshot of recent graduates, all full-time students are surveyed during the annual process. KPI questionnaires seek their opinions about the academic quality of their educations, and the quality of services and facilities of their schools.
A number of questionnaire topics related to academics, job-preparation, and campus services and facilities are combined to come up with an overall "Student Satisfaction Rate". In 2016-17, 80.2 percent of currently enrolled St. Clair students described themselves as "satisfied/very satisfied" with all aspects of their college experience. The provincial Student Satisfaction Rate was 76.5 percent. St. Clair's rank among the 24 colleges was fifth.
In several of the sub-categories that make up that overall Student Satisfaction Rate, St. Clair also excelled:
- “Giving you knowledge and skills that will be used in your future career”: 89.7 percent of student gave a “thumb’s up”, fifth in the province;
- “Overall quality of the learning experience in your program …”: 83.0 percent of students were satisfied/very satisfied, tied for sixth;
- “Overall quality of services at the college”: 70.5 percent are happy, fifth in the province; and
- “Overall quality of the facilities/resources in the college”: 77.5 of St. Clairians were happy with those, tied for seventh. (And the survey was taken before the college’s newest facility, its Student Life Centre, had opened.)
Another KPI survey gauged the 2015-16 graduation rate. That is the percentage of students who remained in school for the full duration of their educations, from first-year enrolment to graduation - that is, who did not depart, for one reason or another. St. Clair's number was 68.7 percent, above the provincial average of 66.6 percent. St. Clair ranked eighth in this category.
PROVINCE-WIDE …
Contributed by Colleges Ontario
As Ontario’s college system celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, new research confirms college education continues to be an effective and swift route to employment.
The most recent provincial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) show 83 percent of Ontario’s most recent college graduates found employment within six months of graduation.
“Colleges are experts at helping people find rewarding careers,” said Colleges Ontario President Linda Franklin. “Our graduates’ professional and technical expertise will be even more important in the years ahead as new technology and automation create a heightened demand for a more highly qualified workforce.”
Other KPI results show strong support for the quality of programs provided to students:
• More than 91 percent of employers were either satisfied or very satisfied with the graduates they hired;
• 78 percent of college graduates were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of their education;
• About 77 percent of current students were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of their education.
The provincial government and the colleges have been gathering the annual data on college results since 1998. The most recent KPIs were gathered by two independent research firms in the period from March, 2016 to February, 2017.
