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Why should you participate?

The ESS provides employers across all industries an opportunity to give feedback on how well higher education courses are meeting employer needs. By taking part, your insights as a supervisor will benefit employers through enhancements to Australian higher education policy and curricula.

How will the data be used?

Information from the ESS is used by institutions to better understand the specific skills and attributes needed in business today and how well higher education is preparing graduates for the workforce. The research facilitates the ongoing improvement of higher education by ensuring that institutions are responsive to labour market and industry needs.

Further information

We offer a brochure that can be shared with supervisors who are interested in participating in the ESS.

Your privacy

The Social Research Centre respects your privacy and complies with the Australian Privacy Principles. Click below to view the full Research Information Privacy Policy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Please click on the headings below to reveal further information.

The Social Research Centre is commissioned as an agent of the Australian Government Department of Education (the department) under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to conduct the QILT suite of surveys.
The survey takes approximately 7 minutes, depending on survey responses.

All supervisors are invited to participate in the ESS via email and/or telephone. We understand supervisors are busy, the survey can be completed at a time convenient to you, and you can complete at a later date if you’re unable to finish the survey in one sitting.

If you’d like to make an appointment to complete the survey, please call the Social Research Centre on 1800 055 818 (a free call).

The ESS provides the only national measure of the extent to which higher education institutions in Australia are meeting employer needs. Your experience as a supervisor of a recent graduate is valuable to us. The ESS helps the department understand the varied employment pathways graduates are taking after completing their study, and how these pathways are changing over time.

This survey also provides employers and industry with an opportunity to provide feedback and input into the ongoing improvement of higher education. Specifically, this survey gathers employer feedback on the extent to which students are being taught the right mix of generic and technical skills to be prepared for the workforce. The research aims to ensure that institutions are responsive to labour market and industry needs.

The ESS is being conducted between November through to August each year.

We provide an extended survey period to allow supervisors time to participate at their convenience and accommodate the seasonal work requirements of many industries.

The ESS is undertaken on a systematic basis by asking employed graduates who participated in the GOS, to provide the contact details of their supervisor for follow up.

The Social Research Centre complies with the Australian Privacy Principles. All personal contact information such as name, email and phone number is removed from the final data. A unique identifying number is retained to ensure supervisors are only contacted again as appropriate. Only aggregated data is used in the research findings published on the QILT and ComparED websites.

For further information on our privacy policy, please see www.srcentre.com.au/research-participants#privacy.

Our helpdesk for the ESS is available to answer any further questions you may have.

They can be contacted via the details below.