Treffer: Study of Former Students of the Word Processing Program. Volume XXIII, No. 5.

As part of the program evaluation and review process at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) in Illinois, a follow-up study was conducted of students who had enrolled in the college's Word Processing Program between summer 1989 and spring 1994. A survey was mailed to 500 former students, receiving a response rate of 37.6%. Study findings included the following: (1) 95% of Word Processing students were female; (2) their average age was 31.3, and 70% were over 21; (3) 38% were attempting to secure a new job, while 19% were improving their current job skills; (4) students' grade point average at WRHC was 2.99, and they had earned an average of 23 credit hours; (5) 78% had been enrolled for 2 or more years, and 42% had been enrolled at least 5 years; (6) 73% had taken advanced WordPerfect 5.1 and 51% had already taken DeskTop Publishing with WordPerfect 5.1; (7) students showed interest in future courses including Advanced WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows, Advanced WordPerfect 6.0 DOS, DeskTop Publishing with WordPerfect 6.0, and Advanced Microsoft Word for Windows; (8) two-thirds of the former students were employed full time, 19% were employed part time, and 4% were unemployed; (9) students' first full-time jobs paid an average of about $21,000 per year and first part-time jobs paid an average of $8.90 per hour; (10) mean salaries of current full-time jobs was $27,700, while the mean wage rate for current part-time jobs was $9.38 per hour; and (11) students rated the word processing courses as of high value and felt well prepared for their jobs. The survey instrument is included. (KP)