The College System of Tennessee has launched a new interactive online data dashboard with the goal of helping its community and technical colleges learn more about graduates’ post-college employment and earnings.
The state said that by using this tool, colleges can examine three primary employment outcomes: employment rates in Tennessee, average annual wages, and industry of employment.
The College System of Tennessee partnered with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) on the Careers Start Here dashboard, which tracks aggregate employment outcomes for graduates of Tennessee’s community colleges and colleges of applied technology (TCATs) over the past decade. The partnership enables the sharing of data between agencies on a recurring basis to improve academic programs and workforce development efforts.
“This new partnership provides the opportunity for [Tennessee Board of Regents] (TBR) and the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to share data that can provide deeper insights into program alignment and workforce outcomes,” said TBR Chancellor Flora W. Tydings. “The dashboard that we have built has already provided new insights at the program and college level into employment outcomes for TBR students. We are grateful to Commissioner Thomas and her team for working so closely with us in this endeavor.”
The state noted that the dashboard allows colleges to compare employment outcomes by college, major field of study, or student characteristics. It also allows colleges to compare outcomes for graduates to outcomes for students who enrolled but did not graduate. The state said that no personally identifying information is used by the dashboard.
“This dashboard will be a critical tool, not only for state government, but any organization planning their future workforce needs,” said TDLWD Commissioner Deniece Thomas. “Our partnership with TBR has created a central location that brings together timely and useful information that will lead to more informed decision-making about the workforce of tomorrow.”
The TBR said the new dashboard and accompanying data tools will be updated quarterly with new information and are accessible through the Employment Outcomes and Earnings tab on the comprehensive TBR Data Dashboard on the TBR website.
TBR said it plans to continue refining the data tool to make it even more useful for students, parents, and high school guidance counselors in their college and career planning.
