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NEWS
Employers can get satisfaction
Employer survey bucks student survey ’ s negative trends .
By Wade Zaglas
Despite decreases in student satisfaction affecting the Australian higher education sector in 2020 , the 2020 QILT Employer Satisfaction Survey provided a more positive outlook for the sector .
The survey found that 84.7 per cent of graduates ’ direct supervisors were highly satisfied with their overall quality , an improvement of 0.7 per cent on 2019 ’ s results . Indeed , the overall satisfaction rate of graduates in 2020 is the second highest in five years , with only 2018 showing a slightly higher overall satisfaction level ( 84.8 per cent ).
In addition to providing an overall satisfaction level , employers rated their satisfaction with graduates across foundation skills , adaptive skills , collaborative skills , technical skills and employability skills .
While high levels of satisfaction were recorded across all domains , an overwhelming 93.7 per cent of employers were satisfied with graduates ’ foundation skills , which encompass “ general literacy , numeracy and communication skills and the ability to investigate and integrate knowledge ”.
Employers were even more satisfied ( 93.8 per cent ) with graduates ’ technical skills , which describes their ability to apply professional and technical knowledge and standards .
Employers were least satisfied with graduates ’ employability skills , with 86.8 per cent of employers satisfied with graduates ’ “ ability to perform and innovate in the workplace ”.
STUDY AREAS AND SATISFACTION LEVELS
Employers reported having the highest overall satisfaction with engineering graduates at 90.5 per cent . Agriculture and environmental studies graduates , as well as education graduates , also recorded aboveaverage rates of employer satisfaction , with 88.3 per cent and 87.6 per cent respectively . Employers of information and technology graduates were similarly highly satisfied , with an overall satisfaction level of 87.2 per cent .
Employer satisfaction levels for management and commerce graduates as well as society and culture graduates was 82.7 per cent and 82.6 per cent respectively . Meanwhile , employers of creative arts graduates recorded an overall satisfaction level of 77.6 per cent , the lowest of the 10 broad fields of study .
The same five domains of foundation skills , adaptive skills , collaborative skills , technical skills and employability skills were aggregated to calculate the overall satisfaction ratings for each study area .
EMPLOYER SATISFACTION BY INSTITUTION
Employer responses from 2018 – 2020 were included to produce the report on employer satisfaction by institution .
Bond University and The University of Divinity were the top ranked higher education institutions by employers , with satisfaction levels of 92.9 per cent and 92.3 per cent respectively . However , the report emphasises that “ the small number of responses … means there are wide confidence intervals associated with these estimates and as a result employer satisfaction cannot be said to be significantly higher at these institutions ”.
For instance , the University of Melbourne received more than 907 employer responses , while Bond University and the University of Divinity received 58 and 41 respectively .
That said , rounding out the top 10 , in order , was Australian Catholic University , University of Wollongong , Central Queensland University , Swinburne University of Technology , Monash
University , The University of South Australia , Victoria University and Queensland University of Technology .
Notable absences from the top 10 were the University of Melbourne , the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland , three of Australia ’ s top-ranked institutions .
IMPORTANCE OF QUALIFICATION FOR CURRENT EMPLOYMENT
“ Health and Education qualifications were rated by graduates and supervisors as being significantly more important for their current position than most other fields of education ,” the report said .
To illustrate , 74.4 per cent of education graduates and 77.9 per cent of their supervisors thought that their qualifications were important for their current employment . Similarly , 69.7 per cent of health graduates and 78.2 per cent of their supervisors believed their qualifications were important to their current role .
“ Supervisors of creative arts , management and commerce and information technology graduates were least likely to think that the qualification was important for current employment at 48.6 per cent , 50.7 per cent , and 51.1 per cent respectively ,” the report said .
While there was a lot of agreement in education and health fields , graduate and supervisor responses in other areas varied substantially in regards to the extent to which a qualification prepared graduates for their current employment .
A very high 93 per cent of education graduates said their qualification prepared them well or very well for their current employment , with 97.2 per cent of their supervisors in agreement . Health graduates were also highly satisfied with the quality of their qualifications , with 92.8 per cent of graduates reporting their qualification had prepared them well or very well for their current role .
“ Architecture and building graduates , 78.3 per cent , creative arts graduates , 81.4 per cent , and society and culture graduates , 84.3 per cent , were least likely to state that their qualification prepared them for their job ,” the report said .
“ Supervisors in each of these areas were more likely to state that the course had prepared the graduate well or very well for their current employment , with architecture and building graduate supervisors rating preparedness 16.9 percentage points higher than graduates .” ■
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