The Career Outcome Tools Project is a collaborative initiative by IBHE, ICCB, ISAC, IDES, and the Governor’s Office. The cross-agency project connects higher education data to employment data and allows for greater understanding of the workforce outcomes of graduates in Illinois via web-based applications.  There are two aspects to the project:

  1. Institutional Research (IR) Portal –  an internal-institutional researcher access-controlled portal for each college, and
  2. Illinois College2Career Tool – a public-facing student/parent mobile tool.

Institutional Research (IR) Portal

The internal-institutional researcher (IR) access-controlled portal, i.e. IR Portal, for each college will enhance the Illinois Community College System and ICCB’s ability to track student outcomes in the workforce.  The IR tool, via intuitive and dynamic visualization tools, will provide a secure, single point of access for each college to examine granular and longitudinal student graduate career earnings, career job stability, and area of instruction to career industry relationship. As of August 2018, the IR portal contains academic year 2010 through 2014 graduate microdata linked to the most recent IDES employee wage data available. More recent academic year microdata will be shared with IDES soon and throughout the project.

Please note ICCB (and thirteen community college districts) piloted the IR portal from May, 2017 through March , 2018. More information on the pilot and related recorded webinars are available at:  Career Outcomes Institutional Research Web Tool Pilot.

Illinois College2Career Tool

The public-facing Illinois College to Career Tool will allow Illinois prospective students and parents have transparent and easily accessible information about their post-secondary choices. The tool is available at – https://www.ilcollege2career.com.  There are a range of metrics in the platform that will be displayed to help individuals make more informed choices about academic areas to enroll in. It contains general information about colleges such as Program Enrollment and Graduates at the 2-digit Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Level, as well as several data measures that are already publically available on such websites as the USDOE College Scorecard, NCES College Navigator, and IPEDS Data Center. Data points include but are not limited to: Annual Tuition and Fees; Percent of Students Receiving Pell; Debt for Graduates; Percent of Full-Time Students; Percent of Students 25 and older; Retention Rate; Advancement Rate (Graduation Rate + Transfer Rate + Persistence Rate), and Subsequent Enrollment of Graduates. Unique in the Illinois College to Career platform is the public availability of education to workforce measures at the 2-digit CIP level. For each college, the following workforce outcomes will be available: Wages in Illinois Four Years after Graduation; Percent of Graduates with “Steady” Employment Four Years after Graduation;  and Percent of Graduates that are Employed in Illinois Four Years after Graduation. Graduates that subsequently enrolled in additional higher education activity within four years of graduation are NOT included in the workforce outcomes. Cell-size restrictions and suppression are appropriately applied to any publically available workforce outcomes.

ICCB Career Outcomes Tools Project Outreach Activities

ICCB has presented on the Career Outcome Tools Project at a number of different convenings including:

  • July 2016 – September 2016: Presentations on Career Outcome tools to ICCB staff and ICCB MIS/Research/ILDS Advisory Committee
  • November 3, 2016: Career Outcome tool presentation at the Illinois Association for Institutional Research Annual Forum
  • November 17, 2016: Career Outcome Tool pilot project overview shared with the ICCB Board – Academic, Workforce, and Student Support Committee
  • May 2017 – March 2018: ICCB Career Outcome Tool pilot with 13 community college districts and IBHE  Career Outcome Tool pilot with 17 four-year institutions occurred to ensure analyst tool meets higher education needs
  • November 8, 2017: Career Outcome tool presentation at the Illinois Association for Institutional Research Annual Forum
  • March 2018: Presentation on Career Outcome tool to Central-Southern & Northern Illinois Community College Researcher Groups
  • April 17, 2018: Career Outcome tool project overview provided at the Illinois Council of Community College Presidents meeting
  • June 1, 2018: Career Outcome Tool pilot project update overview shared with the ICCB Board – Academic, Workforce, and Student Support Committee
  • June 14, 2018: Presentation on Career Outcome tool to Illinois Community College Chief Academic Officer (CAO) Summer  Retreat

If you have questions please contact ICCB Research and Analytics Staff members Nathan Wilson at Nathan.Wilson@Illinois.Gov or Jay Brooks at Jay.Brooks@Illinois.Gov