Beacon College graduates are commanding bigger paychecks and moving up into higher income brackets, according to a new report released in June by the college’s Boven Career Development Center.
The Class of 2019 Employment Survey, the latest annual assessment of graduate employment success, found for the first time that most Beacon graduates (56.3 percent) reported earning salaries between $30,000 and $50,000. This marks substantial gains over the Class of 2018, for which only 33.3 percent of students reported earning $30,000 or more. More encouraging, the number of students earning salaries of $50,001 to $65,000 skyrocketed 235.7 percent last year.
The Boven Career Development Center conducted telephone and email surveys in May for the Class of 2019 Employment Survey. Thirty-nine (21 males, 18 females) of the 75 Class of 2019 graduates participated. The survey contrasts benchmarks from the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ First Destinations Survey. That survey records how new college graduates do career-wise within six months of graduation. Because NACE’s Class of 2019 data publishes in October, the Boven Center compared its findings against the NACE Class of 2018 survey.
Esteban Lopez pinned the salary uptick on “an investment” in additional personnel “in 2019 that paid off.”
“The additional resources invested in the Boven Career Development Center coupled with constant academic improvements in all departments are creating better prepared graduates each year,” said Lopez, director of corporate and academic outreach at Beacon College in Leesburg, Fla., America’s first accredited baccalaureate school dedicated to educating students who learn differently. “As a result, these stronger students are finding better-paid, first-career jobs.”
Overall, one year after graduation 84.7 percent of the Class of 2019 are working or continuing in graduate or professional school. That figure slightly lags the 85.7 national average captured in the NACE Class of 2018 survey and outstrips the 78.6 average reported by NACE Southeast colleges and universities.
“Beacon College’s achievement is noteworthy, as it provides an employability rate practically identical to those obtained by students without learning disabilities,” Lopez said.
Other key findings in the Boven Center report include:
- The $36,661 average income posted by the Class of 2019 exceeded the Class of 2018 by 13.67 percent. It falls short of the $45,821 median income reported by NACE’s survey for the Southeast region.
- Male graduates’ incomes are 2.59 percent higher than female graduates.
- Most Class of 2019 students work full-time; 71.88 percent working full-time versus 28.12 percent who are pulling part-time shifts.
- Part-timers average $11.04 hourly.
Chandler said the Boven Center report is testament to both the caliber of Beacon graduates and the acumen of businesses that commit to diversifying their workforces with neurodiverse candidates.
“Having national companies recognize that our academic programs are preparing students well for work in the corporate world indicates a promising outlook for our graduates,” said Dr. Shelly Chandler, Beacon provost. “Our team continues to work hard to get the word out to recruiters that are students are well worth hiring.”