Annual survey shows how northern colleges are performing

The latest results of Colleges Ontario’s annual survey, looking at 2020-2021 graduates, have been released.

It looks at graduation and employment rates, as well as graduate and employer satisfaction, allowing schools to gauge how they are doing and highlighting where improvement is needed.

Officials from Canadore College in North Bay and Collège Boréal in Greater Sudbury said they are happy with how their institutions ranked.

Both northern colleges ranked higher than the provincial average for the number of graduates who have found employment and are satisfied six months after graduation.

"It's a reflection of all the great work done here by our staff with our students and the work that they do. I'm happy with our results, we always strive to be better," said George Burton, president of Canadore College.

"It's always nice to come in above provincial average. But it's more for internal use so that we can continue to meet the needs of our students and employees."

Northern college graduate employment rate:

• Boreal 90.6 per cent
• Cambrian 88.6 per cent
• Canadore 89 per cent
• Northern 81.6 per cent
• Sault 79.5 per cent

Collège Boréal’s president, Daniel Giroux told CTV News he is glad that even with the challenges of the pandemic, students were able to be successful.

"When you see students when they're in class and some of the challenges they went through with COVID and all, and see them graduate and find employment and see them satisfied with the quality of education that they received at Collège Boréal, it's truly amazing," Giroux said.

The provincial average of 2020-2021 graduates who said they were "satisfied/very satisfied" six months after graduation is 75.4 per cent. All five of the northern Ontario colleges received above-average marks.

Northern college percentage of 'satisfied/very satisfied' grads

• Boréal 94 per cent
• Cambrian 78.9 per cent
• Canadore 78.5 per cent
• Northern 87.2 per cent
• Sault 76.8 per cent

Both Canadore and Sault Ste. Marie’s Sault College received a 100 per cent employer satisfaction rating.

"It's a great reflection of Canadore training people for the needs of the workforce. The skills that our students are acquiring are appreciated by their employers,” Burton said.

“This is direct feedback from those employers so we are happy with that result."

Northern college employer satisfaction rate:

• Boréal n/a
• Cambrian 85.7 per cent
• Canadore 100 per cent
• Northern n/a
• Sault 100 per cent

When it comes to graduation rates, Boreal and Sault College exceeded the provincial average of 65.2 per cent during the height of the pandemic.

Northern college graduation rate among 2020-2021 grads:

• Boréal 75.2 per cent
• Cambrian 63.5 per cent
• Canadore 64.2 per cent
• Northern 58.7 per cent
• Sault 66.5 per cent

College officials said putting out these key performance indicators every year is important as it allows colleges to continuously review and improve their programs.

"It's not quality of the classrooms and equipment, it's the quality of the faculty and all staff… We look at patterns. We're always trying to get better,” said Giroux.

"We want that student experience to be great. We want them to graduate, want them to find employment and we want them to be successful."

More than 1,600 employers and more than 37,000 students from across the province participated in the annual survey.