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Both the Ontario Auditor General (2011) and the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services (2012) recommended that the province collect, validate and publish performance indicators for private career colleges to help current and future students make more informed decisions about their postsecondary education and to allow the province to better oversee the sector. Ontario committed to implement key performance indicators (KPIs) for private career colleges (PCCs), with costs carried by the sector.

KPIs also help provide quality assurance for programs provided by private career colleges where public health and safety is a concern (e.g., programs such as Dental Hygiene, Pharmacy Technician, Sonography, Esthetics, and Truck Driving).

Under the authority of subsection 53 (1) (a) of the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005, the Superintendent of Private Career Colleges set out five KPIs for PCCs in Policy Directive #11:

• Graduation Rate
• Graduate Employment Rate
• Graduate Employment Rate in Field of Study
• Graduate Satisfaction Rate
• Employer Satisfaction Rate.

Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) loan default rates – for PCCs approved to accept OSAP-assisted students – are also considered a performance indicator for the sector.

For 2013 results, graduation rate, graduate employment rate, graduate employment rate in field of study and loan default rates have been published. Graduate and employer satisfaction rates will be published beginning with 2014 results.

KPIs measure the quality of programs provided by PCCs to help prospective students and their families make an informed choice on which program and private career college to select. KPIs are also intended to:

• Provide the government with information to inform policy and decision-making and support higher quality post-secondary educational programming
• Ensure accountability for the use of public funds that help students attend PCCs (e.g., OSAP, Second Career, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board funding, which provides financial assistance to students to participate in PCC programs)
• Help private career colleges identify areas of strength and concern so that they can develop improvement strategies
• Ensure KPIs for PCC programs and institutions can be compared with those for public colleges.

The key performance indicators process is being implemented in phases. In Phase I (collection cycle for 2013 results), only OSAP-approved institutions were required to participate, and three of the five indicators were calculated and published – graduation rate, graduate employment rate and graduate employment rate in the field of study.

In Phase II (collection cycle for 2014 results), only OSAP-approved institutions have been required to participate and all five indicators will be calculated and published.

For Phase III (collection cycle for 2015 results), all private career colleges in Ontario have been required to participate in the KPI initiative.

Private career colleges are required to submit two types of data to report on all entrants (enrolment data) and all graduates graduate data within a specific defined term. A third party service provider, Forum Research Inc. collects, analyses and develops reports, based on the data, to calculate graduation rates for vocational programs.

Forum also surveys PCC graduates (through the Graduate Outcomes Survey) and their employers (through the Employer Satisfaction Survey) six months after graduation. Participating in these surveys is voluntary.

From this information, the remaining four KPIs – graduate employment rate, graduate employment rate in the field of study, graduate satisfaction and employer satisfaction – are developed.

For more details on how each indicator is calculated, see Calculations and Definitions.

KPIs for private career colleges closely mirror those published for public colleges, with the exception of adding graduate employment in the field of study. Consultation with private career colleges showed that the sector clearly supported this performance indicator as being very useful to PCCs, current and prospective students, and employers.

Private career college graduates from Superintendent-approved vocational programs provided by registered private career colleges are surveyed. With a graduate's consent, his or her employer is also surveyed.

The survey is conducted by telephone by a third party service provider, Forum Research Inc. An attempt is made to contact every graduate, even those residing out of the province. With a graduate's consent, an attempt is made to contact his or her employer. Completing these surveys is voluntary.

The survey is administered three times during a year-long collection cycle, each at approximately six months after the end of three ministry-defined graduation terms. Each cycle begins with the winter term.

The Graduate Outcomes Survey contains 24 questions. The majority of survey questions are used to calculate the four survey-based KPIs, and one question is used to validate the respondent’s identity.

The questions in the PCC Graduate Outcomes Survey mirror those of the public college survey, but the PCC survey is much shorter. Please refer to the KPI Operating Procedure for a sample of the private career college survey.

The Employer Satisfaction Survey is administered to employers of private career college graduates who have consented (through the Graduate Outcomes Survey) to have their employers contacted by the service provider.

The Employer Satisfaction Survey includes two key questions: one confirming that the graduate in question is employed, and the second asking the employer to rate his/her satisfaction with the employee's overall PCC preparation for the type of work he/she is doing. Please refer to the KPI Operating Procedure for sample of the survey.

Representatives from both PCC sector associations – the Ontario Association of Career Colleges (now Career Colleges Ontario) and the former Association of Private Colleges – were consulted throughout 2012/13, during the development of the KPI implementation plan and the tools and methodology for calculating and publishing the indicators.