Suggested graduate contact plan
Quick links: Suggested graduate contact plan | Other vital promotional periods | Communications materials
Providers play a vital part in the success of Graduate Outcomes. It’s important that providers are engaging with the cohort population directly in the build up to the contact period commencing. We know from our work looking at response rates, that engagement with the online survey is dependent on recognition of the Graduate Outcomes brand. Providers play a key role in legitimising the online survey via their own direct and trusted engagement routes.
To support providers in carrying out the suggested contact with graduates prior to being surveyed, we’ve created a simple contact plan to follow. This covers the suggested emails that providers should send to collect updated personal contact details and the recommended “warm up” contact shortly before the contact period starts.
These are based around the following points:
- 6 months after graduation / completion of the course
- Again at 12 months after graduation / completion of the course
- Two weeks before the start of the contact period
Under no circumstances should providers contact graduates once a cohort has commenced surveying. This is due to the risk of over-communication and the creation of potential bias. For more information about this, visit our operational FAQs. This shares more detail about what providers can / can't do during a cohort.
We’ve supplied a large number of promotional materials to help you carry out the warm up communications activity, including a suggested email template for use with the recommended emails. We’re keen to hear from providers who are getting success from this contact plan so we can share this best practice with the sector, and continually evolve it.
Providers are encouraged to adapt these materials to their needs but we ask that all contact made with graduates should, at a minimum, include the Graduate Outcomes logo to ensure you take the opportunity to establish brand awareness.
Suggested graduate contact plan
Below are the timings for the C19071 collection.
| Collection | Cohort | End date of course | Approx. 6 months post course completion | Approx. 12 months post course completion | 2 weeks pre-survey warm up | HESA contact period (surveying) - approx. 15 months post -course completion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 C19071 | Cohort A | Between 1 August and 31 October 2019 | March 2020 | September 2020 | From 17 November 2020 | Between 1 December 2020 and 28 February 2021 |
| 2019/20 C19071 | Cohort B | Between 1 November 2019 and 31 January 2020 | June 2020 | December 2020 | From 15 February 2021 | Between 1 March and 31 May 2021 |
| 2019/20 C19071 | Cohort C | Between 1 February and 30 April 2020 | September 2020 | March 2021 | From 18 May 2021 | Between 1 June and 31 August 2021 |
| 2019/20 C19071 | Cohort D | Between 1 May and 31 July 2020 | December 2020 | June 2021 | From 18 August 2021 | Between 1 September and 30 November 2021 |
This plan will be updated as we move through future collections.
Other vital promotional periods
Providers should also be promoting Graduate Outcomes to graduates during the following suggested points:
- During their time as a student
- During the student’s final weeks of teaching
- At graduation
- Embedded into any existing post-graduation engagement activity i.e. driven by Alumni teams / Careers services (if relevant)
Communications materials
Please use the links below to access all of the communications materials we have provided to you, including provider case studies.
Logo, brand guidelines and presentation materials (video and powerpoint) » Promotional items (roller banners, digiscreen slides, email template) » Video content (animated videos) » Social media resources (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook imagery) » Hints and tips » Provider case studies »
Introduction to Graduate Outcomes promotional strategy training
Need help or ideas for using these materials? View our e-learning module which provides guidance on how to use the communications we've supplied as well as direct examples from providers.