Graduate Employment Survey Results

SAIT’s primary goal is to equip students with essential skills for career success in industry with an applied education and work-integrated learning. And each year, we conduct a SAIT-wide survey to determine the employment rate, salaries and satisfaction of our newest SAIT alumni. The survey is conducted annually with the most recent class of SAIT grads.

We conduct this survey to ensure our programs are relevant to industry and our grads are finding success. We also want to help prospective students make informed decisions about their career paths.

Just like the rest of the world, our 2020 graduates were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the survey results are not in line with what we have seen historically. With the results skewed due to the pandemic, we do not see the data as helpful in assessing if our programs are industry relevant or of value to our prospective students. Below you will find detailed employment and salary information of our SAIT graduates from the 2018/19 academic year.

Institutional results detailed

	Number of Graduates	Number Responding	In Labour Force	Employment Rate	Total Employed	Employed - Training Related	Employed - Non-Training Related	Not Employed and Seeking Employment	Not Seeking Employment	Pursuing Education	Salary Mean/$Annual	Salary Median/$Annual	Salary Minimum/$Annual	Salary Maximum/$Annual
Overall	4,344	2,979	2,874	91%	2,606	2,082	524	268	105	509	$52,113	$48,000	$20,000	$240,000
School of Business	1,037	655	636	91%	580	440	140	56	29	211	$48,733	$45,000	$20,000	$240,000
School of Construction	499	353	342	87%	299	230	69	43	11	40	$55,026	$50,000	$20,800	$136,000
MacPhail School of Energy	538	353	323	84%	271	205	66	52	30	66	$68,065	$60,000	$25,480	$255,000
School of Health & Public Safety	809	582	562	94%	529	456	73	33	20	79	$53,724	$50,000	$22,100	$130,000
School of Hospitality & Tourism	372	256	253	96%	244	224	20	9	3	24	$36,065	$35,000	$20,000	$74,000
School of Information & Communications Technologies	628	451	446	90%	403	316	87	43	5	47	$50,225	$48,250	$20,800	$174,720
School of Manufacturing & Automation	228	166	161	83%	133	90	43	28	5	32	$55,084	$53,000	$25,000	$96,000
School of Transportation	223	153	151	97%	147	121	26	4	2	10	$45,188	$44,300	$20,000	$136,000

2019 Graduate Employment Survey Methodology

Purpose

To determine the extent to which graduates from SAIT programs find employment, the type of employment and the level of starting salaries.

Timing

A survey of 2018/19 graduates was conducted between January 27 and May 4, 2020. Information was obtained from 2,979 credit program graduates (out of 4,344 credit graduate records), constituting a 69% response rate. In addition, the survey was conducted with 246 pre-employment graduates (out of 382 pre-employment graduate records), resulting in a 64% response rate.

Database

A list of 2018/19 graduates from SAIT programs was generated from Banner. Besides the graduate's name, information on program finished, contact telephone number and email address was provided. Overall, the database included records on 4,726 graduates.

Conduct

To compile the 2019 employment statistics, SAIT retained the services of NRG Research Group, an independent market research company. Academic Chairs notified graduates to expect the survey one week prior to the survey launch. The survey was conducted by using a multimode data collection methodology – telephone and online. Results were collected only online for the first two weeks of the study and then telephone surveying was used for those who had yet to respond. The two modes were conducted simultaneously for the remainder of the study, with 45% being collected by phone and the remaining 55% collected online.

The margin of error overall is equal to ± 0.97 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, finite population correction factor applied. A total of 40,269 calls were made to contact graduated students with an average of 8.6 calls. The maximum number of inital call attempts was 45, with the number increasing to 49 if the respondant asked for a call-back. Additionally, twelve email reminders were sent during the course of the study.

Analysis

The data were input into a database and analyzed. Survey results of those who responded to the survey were subsequently extrapolated to the entire population of graduates/completers. Caution should be used when examining results by programs with fewer than 30 graduates. With smaller base sizes, the percentages may offer a distorted picture when one respondent represents more than 3% of the total respondent base.

Definitions used

In Labour Force - graduates who are employed or unemployed but looking for work.

Employed - graduates employed at the time of the survey, or had been employed prior to the survey for three or more months.

Employment rate - the number of employed graduates as a percentage of all those graduates that responded to the survey and were in labour force

Full-time employment - 30 or more hours of work per week

Permanent employment - the number of graduates employed in permanent jobs

Annualized salary - graduates were given a choice to provide salary information in a form of annual or monthly income, daily or weekly earnings or hourly wages. If the student provided this info in a unit other than the annual salary, the following calculations were used to derive respondents' annualized salaries in full-time jobs:

Hourly wage X (hours worked per week) X 52
Daily wage X 5 (days a week) X 52
Weekly salary X 52
Bi-weekly salary X 26
Monthly salary X 12

Note: All salaries above $100,000 per year and below $15,000 per year were double-verified with the respondent.

Note: Training-related salaries and are not reported for programs with five or less responses