CTE Employment Outcomes Survey will be a boost for ICT Education

The RP Group partnered with the Bay Area Community College Consortium (BACCC) to develop a universally available survey methodology to provide information on employment outcomes for students who have participated in career technical education (CTE) programs at California community colleges. The pilot, with responses from 15,105 students, that had completed or left the Medical Assisting programs at 7 colleges, found that there were wage gains for both completers (39% increase in hourly wage) and non-completers (26% increase in hourly wage). A significant finding for those of us focused on ICT education was that most of the students who earned a certificate or degree, or who completed 12 or more units of coursework are working full time in the same field as their studies or training. Click on this 2011-12 Survey Results link to see reports for both completers and leavers. Anecdotally, we believe this to be true for ICT programs, and now we have the methodology to confirm it.

Here's an update from the BACCC on the status of the 2012/13 CTE Employment Outcomes Project:

You may recall that a pilot survey was completed with 15 colleges for purposes of refining this, the 2nd round of the survey.  We wanted to share progress on this effort.  The Bay Area Community College Consortium would again like to publicly thank the RP Group for moving this effort forward on our collective behalf!

2012/13 Survey Details + Rough Timeline

• 35 colleges/districts are participating in the current survey
• Colleges needed to commit to the survey by 9/01/12
• A signed MOU was due on 11/07/12
• The deadline by which colleges needed to provide the RP Group with student contact lists was 1/15/13
• The email surveys are being conducted as we speak
• The mail surveys will be conducted by the middle of April 2013
• The phone surveys will be conducted by the middle of May 2013
• Individualized reports will be provided to colleges by the middle of June 2013
• A statewide report will be released in the middle of July 2013
• The deadline to sign up for the 2013/14 survey is to be determined (i.e., we're not exactly sure yet)

More information can be found on the RP Group website: rpgroup.org (See links above)

Thanks very much,

Kit

Background
Initiated at the spring 2011 CCCAOE Conference, the purpose of this statewide project is to address the current lack of data to validate the impact of CTE programs.  By scaling Cabrillo and other college CTE completer/leaver surveys, the pilot project was used to refine the methodology prior to implementation of a statewide survey.  149 individuals participated in the project planning and development stage, representing roughly 46 colleges, 9 community college districts, 3 Economic and Workforce Development Initiatives, the RP Group, Chancellor’s Office staff, and the Bay Area Community College Consortium, among others.  A second round of the survey is currently in progress.