Wittenberg’s career outcome rate increases amid COVID-19

Placement rate up 5% from 2020 to 2021 based on survey of graduates.

Credit: Bill Lackey

Credit: Bill Lackey

Wittenberg University achieved a 97% career outcome rate, a 5% increase from 2020, while still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Graduating seniors have the opportunity to be a part of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) First-Destination Survey, conducted by Wittenberg’s Career Services Team, according to a release from the university. This survey was from May to November 2021 to collect the post-graduate placements of all graduates from August 2020 to May 2021.

The majority of 2021 graduates obtained full-time employment, several students went on to pursue graduate education, while a few chose to complete a year of service.

“For our 2020 graduates, we had a 92% placement rate, which means 92% of the students whom we collected information from were placed into employment, graduate school, military service, service, or other opportunities within six months of graduation,” said Brittany House Conrad, executive director for career engagement and professional development in Career Services. “For 2021, we increased to 97%. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased with these results.”

House Conrad said the survey is conducted annually along with most schools in the U.S.

“The survey is for all students who have graduated in the past year. We collect it to learn our graduates’ outcomes or what our graduates are doing upon graduation: employment, graduate school, service, military, etc. We then analyze the survey results to have a better understanding of our graduates,” she said.

From the results, Career Services can learn trends, employers, graduated schools, types of jobs, and additional outcome-related information.

House Conrad said collaboration with faculty and alumni is what helped achieve the high placement rates as they all provide many forms of career coaching.

“I think our career coaching and our programming, like Career March Madness, make a huge difference in students’ successful placements,” she said. “We are excited to offer more initiatives in the future. For example, we are working on developing new relationships with employers and internship sites, so we can help students secure even better placements.”

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