Employer Satisfaction Survey
The ESS is the only national survey that measures how well graduates from Australian higher education institutions meet employer needs. It uses a unique methodology to link the experiences of graduates to the views of their direct supervisors. Data from the ESS are used to better understand the specific skills and attributes needed in business today, how well higher education is preparing graduates for the workforce and the varied employment pathways graduates are taking after completing their study.
Target population
Over 3,400 supervisors of employed graduates
Sample size
Employers of graduates of Australian higher education institutions
Survey cycle
Conducted annually
2021 ESS Results
In 2021 the supervisor response rate was 44.0 per cent with over 3,450 supervisor responses. The 2021 ESS results are large enough to provide robust comparisons by broad field of education, course characteristics, employment characteristics, occupation and demographic group. There are sufficient results from the 2019, 2020 and 2021 ESS combined to provide comparisons across universities. With the overall satisfaction of graduates rated by direct supervisors at 85.3 per cent, the results of the 2021 ESS affirms the value of higher education qualifications for employment. Below is a summary of the survey outcomes. The 90 per cent confidence intervals are presented to aid in interpretation of the data. Please refer to the 2021 ESS National Report for detailed ESS results.
Employer satisfaction with graduate attributes and overall satisfaction, 2021 (%, with 90 per cent confidence intervals)
In 2021, employers reported highest overall satisfaction with engineering and related technologies graduates at 90 per cent. Supervisors also reported above average satisfaction with health graduates, 89 per cent, architecture and building graduates, 88 per cent, and education graduates, 87 per cent. On the other hand employer satisfaction, while still high, appears lower for agriculture and environmental studies graduates and information technology graduates, both at 81 per cent, and creative arts graduates, 82 per cent.
Employer overall satisfaction by broad field of education, 2021 (%, with 90 per cent confidence intervals)
Employer satisfaction with graduate attributes and overall satisfaction, by broad field of education, 2021 (%, with 90 per cent confidence intervals)
| Foundation | Adaptive | Collaborative | Technical | Employability | Overall satisfaction | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Natural and Physical Sciences | 91.6 (88.3, 94.0) | 89.7 (86.2, 92.4) | 90.9 (87.5, 93.4) | 92.0 (88.7, 94.5) | 85.9 (81.9, 89.2) | 83.6 (79.5, 87.0) |
Information Technology | 93.5 (90.0, 95.9) | 91.0 (87.0, 93.8) | 92.7 (89.1, 95.2) | 92.4 (88.6, 95.0) | 86.9 (82.5, 90.4) | 81.4 (76.4, 85.6) |
Engineering and Related Technologies | 95.5 (92.7, 97.3) | 91.7 (88.3, 94.2) | 88.8 (85.0, 91.8) | 93.8 (90.7, 95.9) | 84.9 (80.7, 88.4) | 90.4 (86.7, 93.1) |
Architecture and Building | 95.1 (89.3, 98.0) | 91.4 (84.6, 95.4) | 97.6 (92.7, 99.5) | 95.1 (89.2, 98.0) | 85.2 (77.5, 90.6) | 87.5 (80.0, 92.5) |
Agriculture and Environmental Studies | 95.7 (89.4, 98.6) | 94.3 (87.6, 97.7) | 94.1 (87.3, 97.6) | 100.0 (95.3, 100.0) | 90.8 (82.9, 95.4) | 80.8 (72.1, 87.3) |
Health | 93.6 (91.8, 95.0) | 89.1 (86.9, 90.9) | 88.6 (86.4, 90.5) | 95.0 (93.3, 96.2) | 84.7 (82.2, 86.9) | 89.2 (87.0, 91.0) |
Education | 92.9 (90.7, 94.7) | 90.0 (87.4, 92.1) | 84.9 (81.9, 87.4) | 93.0 (90.8, 94.8) | 87.0 (84.1, 89.4)
| 87.1 (84.2, 89.5) |
Management and Commerce | 95.0 (93.4, 96.3) | 91.1 (89.0, 92.8) | 91.6 (89.7, 93.3) | 94.2 (92.5, 95.6) | 90.3 (88.1, 92.1) | 84.5 (82.0, 86.7) |
Society and Culture | 92.6 (90.7, 94.1) | 90.0 (87.9, 91.8) | 87.1 (84.8, 89.1) | 93.0 (91.1, 94.5) | 85.0 (82.5, 87.2) | 82.4 (79.8, 84.7) |
Creative Arts | 91.7 (86.7, 94.9) | 90.2 (85.0, 93.7) | 94.0 (89.6, 96.7) | 92.9 (88.1, 95.9) | 88.5 (83.0, 92.4) | 81.5 (75.3, 86.4) |
Total | 93.5 (92.8, 94.2) | 90.3 (89.4, 91.1) | 89.3 (88.3, 90.1) | 93.7 (93.0, 94.4) | 86.6 (85.6, 87.6) | 85.3 (84.3, 86.3) |
Employer satisfaction is consistently high across Australia’s Table A and B universities, with overall satisfaction ranging from 77 per cent to 92 per cent across universities, when results are combined from the 2019, 2020 and 2021 surveys. Employers rated graduates from University of Wollongong the highest at 92 per cent, followed by Australian Catholic University and Charles Darwin University, both 89 per cent.
Note caution is warranted in interpreting differences in employer satisfaction across universities due to the relatively small number of survey responses at some universities.
Results for individual non-university higher education institutions (NUHEIs) are not published as the number of employer responses remains too small.
Employer overall satisfaction by institution, 2019 to 2021 (%)
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About the ESS
The ESS provides information about the quality of education provided at Australian institutions, by asking supervisors to provide feedback about the generic skills, technical skills and work readiness of the graduate employed in their workplace. It is the first national survey that links the experiences of graduates to the views of their direct supervisors. 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 ESS has been conducted annually since 2016.
While there are an insufficient number of responses to publish institution by study area results on the ComparED website, the ESS is large enough to provide comparisons by broad field of education, course characteristics, employment characteristics, occupation and demographic group.
Results are pooled across the three most recent collection years to enable comparisons across universities. This follows the approach for other surveys on the ComparED website where results are pooled across years to improve the robustness and validity of data. The QILT reports and ComparED website do not publish results where there are fewer than 25 survey responses. For this reason, results for individual non-university higher education institutions (NUHEIs) are not shown as the number of employer responses is generally too small.
- Overall satisfaction
- Foundation skills - general literacy, numeracy and communication skills and the ability to investigate and integrate knowledge
- Adaptive skills - the ability to adapt and apply skills/knowledge and work independently
- Collaborative skills - teamwork and interpersonal skills
- Technical skills - application of professional and technical knowledge and standards
- Employability skills - the ability to perform and innovate in the workplace
Overall satisfaction
The percentage of supervisors who expressed overall satisfaction with their graduate.
Foundation skills
The percentage of supervisors who expressed satisfaction with graduates’ foundation skills.
Adaptive skills
The percentage of supervisors who expressed satisfaction with graduates’ adaptive skills.
Collaborative skills
The percentage of supervisors who expressed satisfaction with graduates’ collaborative skills.
Technical skills
The percentage of supervisors who expressed satisfaction with graduates’ technical skills.
Employability skills
The percentage of supervisors who expressed satisfaction with graduates’ employability skills.