Graduate Tracking and Reporting
How-to Guide

The Sowela Technical Community College Department Head conducts a bi-annual review of its Process Technology (PTEC™) graduates as part of a long-term system of tracking students. Much of the information used in the evaluation is gathered through telephone contacts, mail inquiries, and e-mail. A graduate tracking chart is kept for each graduate, and updated several times during each semester, showing if they have completed their degree, where they are working, who has elected to continue their education, and who is not working.

Tracking Graduates
With this tracking tool, the college can track the percentage of graduates who enter their chosen career field, as opposed to those who are employed in unrelated work or are not working. By checking back with graduates each semester, changes are recorded in a timely manner. The Graduate Tracking Chart includes all contact information for each graduate including cell phone and work numbers, and the employer, if employed.
Graduate Tracking Chart

Reporting to the College Advisory Board
Sowela’s Advisory Board requires that the college keep track of all students for accountability assurance purposes. Data from the graduate tracking chart is regularly and systematically gathered, summarized, and reported to the Advisory Board for the purpose of improving candidate performance, program quality, and department operations.

Graduate tracking information is reviewed at every Advisory Board meeting to assess whether courses are meeting the demands of the local job market, if internships or scholarships are offered to the students, and if the equipment needs of the department are being met and/or augmented.

In addition, the Advisory Board takes this information and presents it to their different managers in order to encourage them to hire PTEC™ graduates. College Advisory Report

Providing Information to the State PTEC™ Advisory Board
The tracking information is then entered into a campus update form created by the Louisiana PTEC™ Board. The State PTEC™ Advisory Board Campus Update includes all PTEC™ enrollment and graduate data from Spring 2002 to the current semester for full and part-time students, high school students, and projected and actual graduate figures, noting the percentage of graduates who have been hired in a related field.

The update also includes fields for tracking internship programs and the use of lab exercises within the curriculum. Additional fields are provided to record PTEC™ instructor development, best practices to share, and issues and opportunities.
State PTEC™ Advisory Board – Campus Update

The Rewards of the Tracking System
Through the graduate tracking process, Sowela manages data on student performance and tracks graduate progress relative to hiring. In addition to providing information regarding student progression through the program, the Graduate Tracking documents are used to prepare summary return on investment reports to the Program Advisory Board, the State PTEC™ Advisory Board, and CAPT. The reports help students, colleges, industry, and the Louisiana taxpayers gauge the effectiveness of the program, and the dividends that it pays to every sector.