The Brainstorm Report for Schools

University & College Editions

No Cost. Just Insights.

Participating in the Brainstorm School Report—and receiving your custom report—is completely free.
Sign up today to access valuable information at no charge.

Make informed, data-driven decisions to support your students’ career success.

The Brainstorm Student Interests Report is a comprehensive research study that provides an in-depth look at the mindset of Canadian post-secondary students.

In addition to providing data related to students’ career aspirations, job search behaviours, and employer interests, the report gives career, co-op, and WIL offices specific feedback regarding students’ experience using these services on campus.

The Brainstorm Report includes information about students’:

Motivations for choosing post-secondary education

Reasons for choosing their major

Clarity of career paths available through their program of study

Career services usage and expectations

Work term experiences

Job search behaviours and resources

Interest in prospective employers and industries

Views on their school’s commitment to career support

Career goals and aspirations

Skills development

Social media and job search habits

Top sources of stress

Careers planning and its relation to academic success

Job and workplace readiness

Influencers on their career decisions

Preferred career resources and websites

Custom School Report

School subscribers to the survey will receive a custom report comparing their students’ responses to student responses nationally.

They will also receive information about their students’ usage of their career, co-op, and/or WIL offices, including student candid responses to an open-ended question about their overall experiences with their career, co-op, and/or WIL office.

See What’s Inside

Get a glimpse of the insights you’ll receive with your customized report! Below are 6 sample slides, offering a preview
of the 100+ data-rich slides packed with actionable insights, industry trends, and expert analysis.

The 2025 Brainstorm Student Interests Report

The 2024 edition of the Brainstorm Student Interests Report was based on a comprehensive national survey of more than 24,000 public university and college students. It was conducted in March through July of 2024.

The 2025 edition is being fielded in January through May 2025.

There is no cost to educational institutions to participate. Schools that assist in promoting the survey to their students and attract at least 200 responses receive a confidential 80+ page custom report of their students' results at NO COST.

Join our school partners and receive your free customized report

Schools wishing to get involved in the 2025 survey can register to participate using the form below.

Testimonials

Jan Basso

Assistant Vice-President, Experiential Learning & Career Development, Wilfrid Laurier University

“At Laurier, we find the results of the Brainstorm survey particularly helpful in informing program planning and our student marketing efforts, in addressing accountability and in communication with employers. Student feedback is important to us and this is a good barometer year over year.”

Cara Krezek

Director, Co-op, Career & Experiential Education, Brock University

“At Brock, we continue to engage in the Brainstorm Student Career Interests Report as it gives us insight into our students and employer partners, what their interests are, what skills are valued and how those interests change year over year so we can make sure our operations reflect the current student and employer needs. In these changing times, it’s more important than ever to have data driven decisions and reports like this allow us to leverage our resources and ensure that we are providing value to our students and our employer partners with good information and insight.”

Alice Michaud

Associate Director, Talent Development & Career Services, Conestoga College

“We have participated in the Brainstorm Student Career Interests Survey annually. From insights about student career goals and workplace readiness to expectations of career services support, the Survey provides timely, reliable Canadian data that helps to inform our services. Understanding the career objectives and employment preferences of our students, particularly within the broader post-secondary context, gives us valuable information that we can leverage to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our students and stakeholders.”

Mary-Anne Moroz

Manager, Career Centre & Employer Partnerships, Gordon S. Lang School of Business & Economics at University of Guelph

“Brainstorm has been an important partner in helping career centres gather data about the changing career needs of both students and employers. The information derived from their annual Student Career Interests Report helps us better focus our efforts and resources to ensure students are career-ready and employers engage with students in meaningful ways.”

Stephanie Hayne Beatty

Director, Careers & Experience, Western University

“Participating in the Brainstorm Career Interests Survey has helped our department in two ways. First, we understand our students better on a variety of measures. This has allowed us to make decisions about our services. Second, the “Weekly” stat helps remind us of key points throughout the year. It has been very worthwhile for us to participate with Brainstorm!”

How to Participate in the 2025 Study

Public post-secondary institutions are eligible to subscribe for a FREE custom report in exchange for assisting in promoting the survey tool to their students.

To be eligible for the custom report, we require a minimum of 200 student responses (this minimum can be lowered for smaller schools or faculties).

To participate in the 2025 research, please complete and submit the subscription details below. We will follow up with you to provide details to share the survey with your students.

We aim to launch the survey in late January 2025 and close it by the end of May 2025. (Schools can promote the survey at any time during this period). The school reports will be distributed in September 2025.

To participate in our 2025 research study, please complete the subscription form. If you have any trouble submitting through this form, please email us at info@brainstorm.ca

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

Which students can participate in the survey?

All current post-secondary students at Canadian public institutions (all years, levels, majors) can participate in this survey. More than 24,000 complete responses were collected from PSE students in 2024.

What is a student's incentive to participate in the survey?

All respondents to the survey are eligible to enter a draw for a $500 Best Buy Gift Card or one of 10 cash prizes of $100 each. Students are also keen to respond when they learn that it will help their school support them and be used to advise employers to improve their hiring programs.

Are all schools eligible to receive a free, custom report?

To be eligible for a free, custom report, we require a minimum of 200 student responses. This minimum can be lowered for smaller schools or faculties.

How is the research conducted?

The survey is promoted primarily by post-secondary institutions via email. Supplementary promotion of the survey is conducted via purchased email lists of Canadian post-secondary students.

How long does it take to complete the survey?

Approximate survey completion time is 20-22 minutes per respondent.

When is the survey live?

The field period of the survey is February through June annually.

Is the survey available in both official languages?

Yes, the survey is conducted in both English and French.

How do you protect students' identity?

Extensive demographic detail is collected but participants remain anonymous. No personally identifiable information is collected in the survey. Servers collecting and storing the data are in Canada. Students can easily opt out of the survey. Our privacy policy is easily accessible to students. For those students that choose to enter the draw contest, email addresses are collected in a separate database for that purpose exclusively and are not associated with the individual student responses.

How do I get research ethics approval for this survey?

For this research to qualify for acceptance on dozens of campuses each year, we have to abide by strict research ethics that comply with the practices on university and college campuses. Many schools do not require REB approval because the research is used for "program improvement" on campus and is thereby exempted from the process.

Often schools will accept the approval certificate from another school rather than go through the whole process. If your school requires a copy of an approval certificate from another school we can forward that to you. If, on the other hand, they require a full REB approval on your campus, we can help by providing the necessary details. Where REB approval has been required in the past, the research has been approved every time.

How do I get involved?

Complete the subscription form.
We'll follow up with you and provide sample email text for students (in English and French) including a link to the survey and details about the prize incentives.
Send an email to all of your students to promote the survey during the survey period (February through June). A follow-up email may be required depending on your student responses.
We'll keep you posted on your response levels. Roughly 2 weeks is required for a school’s promotion and students’ responses.
We'll award the draw prizes in July to randomly selected winners.
Your customized confidential report will be available to you by the end of September.

What’s included in the custom school reports?

Your custom report will include the following:

Student profile data, including year and level of study, diversity groups, domestic/international status, major of study, GPA (self-declared), full-/part-time studies, and nationality.
Data to support enrollment management and the student experience, such as reasons for choosing their school, likelihood of graduating, confidence in their school choice, sources of stress, quality of interactions with peers, student services, administrative staff, and faculty, as well as the relationship between career goals and academic success.
Career, workplace, and employer-related data, covering career influencers, school support for careers, work expectations and preferences, job search confidence, and participation in co-op or internship programs.
Co-op and career services usage, including the level of support for finding co-ops or internships, preferred attributes of these opportunities, and student ratings of career services and expectations.