Strategies to Collect Employment Data From Graduates

What are recommended strategies to collect employment data from graduates?

The CAA requires accredited programs to annually report student achievement data in three areas—program completion, Praxis examination performance, and employment of graduates in the professions. The CAA uses these data to support assessment of a program’s effectiveness.

For reporting employment data, programs should include graduates who are employed in the profession or who are pursuing further education in the profession within 1 year of graduation. The CAA expects programs to report employment data on ALL graduates from the prior year, as stated in Standard 1.9, as well as to meet the CAA-established threshold for this student outcome measure in Standard 5.7.

Programs should make every effort to use all possible mechanisms to collect this data, including but NOT limited to the following:

• Alumni surveys
• Exit interviews
• Use of program director sign-off on certification applications, state licensure forms, or other national credentials to include the opportunity to query for employment status or future education
• Research of graduates’ records in the ASHA certification/membership database
• Research through state licensure boards to identify employment of graduates
• Other creative means or incentives by which to collect this data on program graduates

If your program uses an innovative technique or successful mechanism to collect employment data on graduates, and if you are willing to share it, please contact accreditation@asha.org.

See the CAA Resources page for more information.