Collaboration between Handshake and Annie Chartrand, Director of Career Services at Jamestown Community College
Understanding student graduation outcomes is crucial to the success of any academic program or institution of higher education. Knowing this, the Career Services office at SUNY Jamestown Community College’s (JCC) Office of Institutional Research (OIR) partnered with Handshake to reimagine their current process and further support community college graduates as they enter or reenter the workforce.
Previously, OIR handled assessment and collection of the future educational and employment plans amongst upcoming and recent graduates; however, this data was not easily collected or widely shared with the larger college community of faculty and Career Services staff. When JCC implemented Handshake in the fall of 2021, a feature the Career Services team was most excited about is the ability to easily set up and collect First Destination Survey data for each graduating class. National Association of Colleges and Employers created the First Destination Survey to assess program outcomes within six months of students’ graduation by looking at their types of employment, additional education, starting salaries, and future plans. Running the survey through Handshake gave the Career Services team an opportunity to be more involved in the process, access results, and see the bigger picture of student outcomes and needs. Additionally, this integration helped highlight ways in which the Career Services team could develop innovative institutionwide programming efforts to support students’ career readiness and faculty in the classroom.
JCC ran its initial First Destination Survey through Handshake for the class of 2023. The reporting features in the Handshake platform generated easy-to-read graphs, lists of employers and transfer institutions, and salary data, which have helped the Career Services team, faculty, and administrators better understand program outcomes and industry trends. The Career Services team plans to partner with the college’s marketing team and faculty to publicize outcomes data from the First Destination Survey on JCC’s program and career community web pages using Handshake’s easily accessible external/RSS feeds. Using the data from these feeds to showcase live results on the college’s web pages allows faculty and the college to share stories of alumni and program success—hopefully driving interest in institutional and program enrollment—all while working toward building a more sustainable local workforce.
Student outcomes data are some of the most important and telling metrics there are when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of an institution's programs. Finding easier ways to facilitate access and generate student involvement with First Destination Surveys should always be top of mind for administrators. JCC has found a way to do this with Handshake to generate valuable, visible outcomes data for everyone to see.
Handshake is an Innovations 2024 Advocate Sponsor.
