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Part of Post-secondary institutions

Graduate Outcomes Survey

Gathers experiences of post‑secondary graduates to provide insight on how well the system prepares students for life after graduation.

Overview

The Graduate Outcomes Survey is conducted every 2 years by Alberta’s government to better understand the experiences of graduates from Alberta’s publicly funded institutions and private career colleges. It provides valuable insights into how well Alberta’s post‑secondary system is preparing students for life after graduation.

The survey covers a wide range of topics and is widely used to:

  • support students and families in making informed education and career decisions
  • help institutions evaluate programs and strengthen marketing efforts
  • guide government and educators in refining curricula and enhancing student supports
  • provide industry and the public with evidence of how graduates are meeting Alberta’s labour market needs

We integrated the Employment Success Survey into the Graduate Outcomes Survey in 2015. This part of the survey gathers feedback from employers of recent graduates to see how well the skills and knowledge gained in Alberta’s post‑secondary institutions align with the needs of the labour market.

Survey dashboards

The Graduate Outcomes Survey dashboards are interactive tools designed to make the survey results accessible to everyone. Two dashboards are available – one for data related to publicly funded post-secondary institutions and one for data related to private career colleges.

They provide user‑friendly and interactive ways to explore data to view trends, compare results across groups and filter by areas of interest.

Features

  • Explore key outcomes, such as employment rates, annual income, job relatedness and graduate satisfaction
  • View results by age, gender, credential, field of study and other demographics
  • Better understand graduates’ debt, their retention in the province and skills relevance to the labour market

How to use the dashboards

Best-practices

  • Use with caution
    • Data for groups with fewer than 30 respondents are suppressed. This protects the privacy of the respondents and helps suppress unreliable estimates.
  • Consider statistical significance
    • Small differences (a few percentage points) may not be meaningful due to survey sampling variability.
  • Keep in mind data is self-reported
    • Results are based on graduates’ own perceptions and experiences. Where possible, compare these findings with other data sources for a fuller picture.
  • Context matters
    • Consider external influences, such as changes in the economy, program offerings or labour market needs when interpreting trends.

Resources

Contact

Connect with the Forecasting, Analytics and Research Unit, Strategic and Business Services:
Email: [email protected]