Professional Documents
Culture Documents
External Report
Summary
UniSA has conducted an Employer Feedback Survey Recommendation 1:
as part of the Australian Learning and Teaching Invite employers and respondents who have
Council’s (ALTC) Teaching Quality Indicators (TQI) expressed interest in attending a launch of the
project. The need to develop an indicator to public report in early 2009.
measure the veracity of the UniSA mission of
‘Educating Professionals’ and ‘Engaging our Recommendation 2:
Communities’ underlies this pilot project. From the next Australian Graduate Survey
The specific aim of the pilot project was to design, administered by UniSA, begin asking recent
trial, evaluate and report on an Employer Feedback graduates permission to use their details for
tool and process, to access feedback from key future research.
industry stakeholders and graduate employers in
data collected about Graduate Qualities and other Recommendation 3:
learning outcomes. The project has also responded Implement improvements to the survey instrument
to a desire to collect this type of information at a including necessary changes required through
discipline level, something not done in surveys of use of the graduate name in future surveys,
this kind in Australia. Development of the survey as identified in the survey improvement register.
tool has been informed by a need to widen the
range of data used to evaluate teaching and Recommendation 4:
learning outcomes beyond student and graduate Closely monitor engagement activity across the
satisfaction surveys. Employer satisfaction data University to identify relevant opportunities to
“Development of the complements graduate information collected inform UniSA employer groups about the survey,
survey tool has been through the Australian Graduate Survey (AGS) and and how they can be involved. This includes
informed by a need Graduate Destination Survey (GDS), supporting the sharing information across the Careers Team,
measurement of UniSA Key Result Areas in Marketing and Development Unit, schools and
to widen the range of
Teaching and Learning, as well as in Community the Community Engaged Scholar project.
data used to evaluate and Industry Engagement.
Recommendation 5:
teaching and learning Locating the supervisor of a recent UniSA graduate
Conduct the improved UniSA Employer Feedback
outcomes beyond to complete the survey without being able to
Survey in the second half of 2009.
student and graduate provide the name of the graduate was a major
obstacle in data collection. This limitation needs Recommendation 6:
satisfaction surveys.” to be overcome to make future iterations of the Utilise the information gathered in informing
Employer Feedback Survey viable, sustainable improvements in curriculum design.
and transferable as a quality indicator. However,
significant strengths and areas for improvement in
the achievement of particular Graduate Qualities
have been highlighted as providing initial points
for attention.
Educating Professionals
Creating and Applying Knowledge
Engaging our Communities
UniSA Employer Feedback Survey External Report Findings Respondents reported that graduates were from
a range of UniSA discipline groups, and these
Ultimately, data output from the Employer Feedback reflected the larger of the 20 discipline based
Survey tool will be most significant for use in schools at UniSA. The highest response rate related
measuring employer satisfaction with graduate to graduates from the School of Health Sciences
attributes, and subsequently inform policy and (14%), then Commerce (10%), Education (9%)
curriculum decisions. There are a range of process and Computer & Information Science (8%). This
outcomes of the Employer Feedback pilot project, spread is across the four divisions – the top four
in addition to the results of the survey data. response rates by discipline represent the largest
This includes the significant improvement of school in each Division. The Divisions were
asking graduates for permission to use their details represented roughly proportionately:
for future research when they are surveyed as part • Education, Arts & Social Sciences: 89 responses
of the AGS. It is perceived that having a sample of • Business: 75 responses
graduate names that have identified their employer • Health Sciences: 59 responses
and given consent to use the information will • Information Technology, Engineering
reduce the time and resources required to contact & the Environment: 48 responses.
employers, as well as the length of the survey.
into employers’ thoughts and This option did not provide any new quality or
attribute that could not be aligned with one of
perceptions of UniSA graduates
the UniSA Graduate Qualities.
and Graduate Qualities.”
Sub-group analysis
Various sub-groups were explored to identify
Strengths and areas
significant differences in importance and gap
for improvement
means across the groups, such as:
Comparing employers’ importance and • Type of organisation
performance ratings allows an analysis of UniSA • Number of employees in organisation
strengths and areas for improvement. The highest • Industry
priority areas for action, revealed by the largest • Number of university graduates employed
gaps between employer importance rating and since Jan 2005
performance rating pertain to three Graduate
There were no significant differences in the
Qualities:
importance means recorded by number of
• ‘Written skills’ and ‘Oral communications’ (GQ6)
employees in the organisation or number of
• ‘Ability to apply knowledge’ (GQ1) and
university graduates employed since January 2005.
• ‘Solve problems’ (GQ3).
3
2
www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/gradquals/
UniSA Employer Feedback Survey External Report Importance means for professional role (as defined to measure and will vary among graduates.
in the survey) versus non-professional role differed Employers acknowledge ‘life experience’ and other
significantly for the following statements: factors in preparing graduates.
• Oral and written communications skills
“It is a combination of aspects. Previous work
• Capacity to develop knowledge
history and qualifications. Also, they were
• Solve problems
believed to be a good cultural fit”.
• Apply knowledge
• Business performance fundamentals Employers recognise and are willing to contribute
and teamwork. to the success of UniSA graduates. Over 80%
of employers responded that they had provided
Analysis of the gap in importance rating and the
additional on or off the job training to new
performance of UniSA graduates between
graduates. When asked what responsibility
professional and non-professional work roles
employers have to contributing to the job-
demonstrates that while there are consistent gaps,
readiness of new graduates in their employ,
there are no significant (greater than 0.5)
common responses across both questions included
differences. The overall importance and
the recognition that employers needed to provide:
performance mean was lower for those graduates
• Induction and orientation
in a non-professional role, however.
• On-the-job training
A significant difference was recorded within the • Job-specific training
‘Type of Organisation’ sub group, between • Mentors, shadowing or networking opportunities
government and private employers in relation to • Occupational Health and Safety training.
the statement on written skills. These two groups
In addition, employers noted the importance of:
also recorded significant differences in the
• Managing performance and expectations
importance mean in relation to understanding
via performance management
different viewpoints, understanding the
• Inducting new employees into the organisation’s
fundamentals of business performance, Indigenous
culture, procedures, policies and value system.
perspectives, ethics and social responsibility,
and initiative and enterprise. It is clear that, to varying levels, employers consider
they do have a role in developing graduates and
Graduate Qualities.
Developing Graduate Qualities
Almost three quarters of all respondents agreed
Discussion
with the statement ‘We employ UniSA graduates
confident that they will readily meet our Notwithstanding acknowledgement of their role
requirements’. Those who disagreed with this in further preparing graduates, many employers
statement commented have high expectations for graduates
transferable across the sector.” funding through the Learning and Teaching
Performance Fund. At UniSA, at least one of the
seven Graduate Qualities is a mandated, assessable
component of each course, evaluated through
the Course Evaluation Instrument (CEI). With the
Sustainability and transferability established use of institutional sets of graduate
The feasibility of building upon the survey pilot attributes that universities offer their graduates
project and implementing the improved survey and through which they distinguish themselves,
tool and process needs to be considered in light measurement of how and how far graduates
of institutional aims and priorities, and the extent possess these is important.
to which the Employer Feedback Survey contributes
to achieving these priorities. Results from the pilot
survey have revealed gaps in the achievement of Teaching and Learning
some Graduate Qualities, identifying opportunities Framework
for improvement and locating strengths in the The Graduate Qualities are at the centre of UniSA’s
delivery of particular Graduate Qualities. However, Teaching and Learning Framework3, as is the
the survey instrument cannot currently provide commitment to embedding experiential learning
the data to accurately track the achievement of
graduate outcomes, and significant improvements
to the survey tool and process are required. The
sustainability of the Employer Feedback Survey “The University’s prime focus is
within UniSA assumes these improvements will
the education of professionals
be implemented and clear steps towards making
these improvements have been identified, the first – applied programs of study
commencing in December 2008. By incorporating responsive to the needs of
the identified improvements the survey becomes
industry which increasingly
more accurate and sustainable as an indicator at
UniSA, as well as more transferable across the provide ‘real world’ learning
sector. experiences designed to
prepare students for employment”
Institutional indicators (UniSA Strategic Plan)
The improved Employer Feedback Survey would
6 supplement data gathered about graduate
outcomes through the Australian Graduate Survey 3
www.unisa.edu.au/ltu/staff/start/framework/default.asp
in all programs. The survey tool will potentially community and industry stakeholders to give
References
Business, Industry and Higher Education Collaboration Council
(BIHECC) (2007) ‘Graduate Employability Skills Report’,
September, www.dest.gov.au/highered/bihecc
Narelle Walker
Project Officer: Learning & Teaching
February 2009