Graduate Employment Survey

Each year, SAIT conducts a 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.

The survey results are shared internally as one method to ensure our programs are relevant to industry and our grads are finding success.

We also share the results externally to help our prospective students make informed decisions about their career paths.

Institutional results

Each year, SAIT conducts a survey to determine the employment rate, salaries and satisfaction of our newest SAIT alumni. The survey is conducted between January and April with the most recent class of SAIT grads.

The data below is employment and salary information about all SAIT graduates from the 2017/18 academic year.

Scroll on the table to view relevant statistics.

	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	4,533	2,942	2,825	90%	2,555	2,011	544	270	117	545	$51,433	$46,800	$20,000	$260,000
School of Business	1,069	671	638	91%	582	415	167	56	33	243	$47,135	$43,154	$20,800	$143,000
School of Construction	567	361	347	92%	320	270	50	27	14	40	$54,262	$50,000	$31,500	$210,000
MacPhail School of Energy	632	418	385	83%	321	235	86	64	33	98	$67,042	$55,500	$27,500	$250,000
School of Health & Public Safety	757	519	509	91%	461	389	72	48	10	57	$52,736	$49,400	$22,680	$144,000
School of Hospitality & Tourism	374	245	242	96%	233	205	28	9	3	19	$34,785	$33,800	$20,000	$65,000
School of Information & Communications & Technologies	673	430	419	90%	376	294	82	43	11	39	$49,200	$48,000	$20,000	$118,560
School of Manufacturing & Automation	263	173	160	86%	138	95	43	22	13	41	$63,662	$54,912	$31,200	$260,000
School of Transportation	198	125	125	99%	124	108	16	1	0	8	$45,345	$41,600	$23,400	$108,000

2018 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 2017/18 graduates was conducted between February 4 and May 1, 2019. Information was obtained from 2,942 credit program graduates (out of 4,533 credit graduate records), constituting a 65% response rate. In addition, the survey was conducted with 245 pre-employment graduates (out of 431 preemployment graduate records), resulting in a 57% response rate.

Database

A list of 2017/18 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 4,964 graduates.

Conduct

To compile the 2018 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 50% being collected by phone and the remaining 50% collected online (with 1% being filled out through an open-link).

The margin of error overall is equal to ± 1.07 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, finite population correction factor applied. A total of 35,829 calls were made to contact graduated students with an average of 7.6 calls. Additionally, eight 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 $10,000 per year were verified with the respondent.

Note: Salaries and employment rates are not reported for programs with five or less responses