ILCollege2Career.com allows parents, students to compare employment, earnings post-graduation from Illinois colleges and universities
information provided by the Office of the Governor
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (September 10, 2018) – For the first time, Illinois high school students will have access to data that shows how much they might earn if they graduate from colleges and universities located in the state.
ILCollege2Career.com, unveiled at Gov. Bruce Rauner’s quarterly Children’s Cabinet meeting today, links employment and higher education data so users can compare the relative earnings value of college degrees. The data is broken down by schools and area of study, so that students can compare the earnings potential of business degrees, for example, from different public and private institutions in the state.
The idea is to help students and parents make college decisions based on an evaluation of real-time successes of a school’s graduates, in addition to factors such as cost, average debt levels, and likelihood to graduate on time. The tool will also show the benefits of investing in higher education, as it demonstrates how connected our thriving higher education system is to the workforce development of our state.
ILCollege2Career.com is the product of collaboration between the Governor’s Office, the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES).
In addition to helping students and parents make informed decisions, the tool allows prospective employers to compare not just schools, but programs within schools to project the quality of employee they are getting. As the schools turn out a strong workforce, the business community will see their value.
Another main goal of the tool is for higher education institutions to have feedback loops on the outcomes of their students, to foster insights and drive improvements in course offerings and support services. The mobile-friendly website has two aspects: a public-facing student/parent portal and an internal institutional researcher portal for each two- and four-year Illinois college and university.
This project, several years in the making, was greatly helped by a tremendous partnership with schools throughout the state. In fact, nearly 100 percent of Illinois schools participated in the project. Technical assistance for this project came from the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL).
