Keeping track of graduates
It is very difficult to get a specific number or percentage of graduates. We have graduates who move away, who decide to not pursue what they have come to learn about, who get hired that don't tell us.
What or how is the best way to handle this?
We want to be accurate, I understand that, but they are times we just don't know
This seems to be a brillant approach to offset the lack of contact. It serves as an opportunity for the recent graduate to show yet another accomplishment which obviously would be great for the school's statistics!
We set the expectation when the enroll about our placement department. WE ask the student to provide us an electronic copy of their resume when they enroll and we continue to get updates as they complete certifications. This has helped us in gathering informaiton once they are employeed.
Our school has a great Career Services/Placement Department that tries their best to keep track of graduates and students who have left school for all sorts of reasons. We find that most graduates are excited about any placement/career opportunities and love to show off. We encourage our students to seek help in career/job placement while they are still in school so our Career Services department can develope a great relationship with the student before graduation and in turn, help them with placement after graduation, which creates a continuing line of communication. We try to do that with most of our students. Which increases our placement rating!
Barbara,
Schools need to make reasonable efforts to track and locate graduates to determine whether they are employed. If the school cannot locate the student after taking reasonable steps to find them, they may be excluded from placement statistics for state reporting purposes. However, accreditors and the US Department of Education may have different requirements.
John Ware
