Venture started the data collection for the 2008 BC College and Institute Student Outcomes Survey in January. Venture’s goal is to complete approximately 16,000 interviews with former students from 20 of BC’s public colleges, university colleges, institutes and universities between January and July. Former students are surveyed 9 to 20 months after they have completed all, or a significant portion, of their post-secondary programs. Venture will be conducting the survey by telephone and Internet, with a restriction that up to 25% may be done online for any particular program. If you received a call from us and were given a PIN, please click here to logon. For more information on the project, please reference the BC College and Institute Student Outcomes Project website.

BC Baccalaureate Graduates Survey of 2002 Graduates

Venture completed the 2007 follow-up survey of 2002 graduates for the University Presidents' Council of BC (TUPC) between October 2007 and January 2008. Venture completed 2,728 online surveys with baccalaureate graduates from 5 of BC's public universities, achieving a gross response rate of 23%. Graduates were sent an email invitation to complete the survey at their convenience and up to five reminder emails over the course of the project. As well, Venture followed up with graduates to update email address information to increase the response rate for some institutions. Further information on this project can be obtained from the TUPC website.

BC Baccalaureate Graduates Survey of 2005 Graduates

Venture completed the 2007 follow-up survey of 2005 graduates for the University Presidents' Council of BC (TUPC) between September 2007 and January 2008. Telephone interviewing finished in late December, while graduates had the opportunity to complete an online survey between November and mid-January. Venture’s goal was to complete between 4,000 and 5,000 surveys with baccalaureate graduates from 12 of BC's public universities, university colleges and colleges. In total, Venture was able to complete 5,020 surveys by telephone and 894 online, achieving a gross response rate of 65%. Further information on this project can be obtained from the TUPC website.

Graduate Follow-up Survey of Apprenticeship Students

In February, Venture started the 2008 survey of former apprenticeship students from 14 BC public colleges and institutes and 14 private institutions in February. More information about the project can be seen by clicking here.

Regional District of Comox-Strathcona Resident Survey

In December of 2007, Venture completed the third of three surveys of residents in the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona. The major goal of this research was to identify and track the level of awareness among residents of the services provided by the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona (RDCS). The survey findings can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat PDF by clicking here.

Other research completed by Venture in the last few years:

Venture has undertaken a number of surveys for local governments and water districts - clients include the District of Langford, District of Metchosin, and the District of Saanich. Venture executed a survey for CRD Water about the support in the Western Communities to borrow up to $10 million to add new infrastructure to the water system.

Venture was awarded a three-year research project to track customer and stakeholder satisfaction for BC Assessment from 2005 through 2007. Venture has just completed the third part of the three-year research study requiring interviews with residential, non-residential, First Nation and Local Government clients about the quality of service provided by BC Assessment and will conducting the research again in 2008.

Since January 2002, Venture has undertaken the Client Satisfaction project for the BC Pension Corporation. This involved the design of five custom surveys, for five different client cohorts or groups. Administration of the data collection process includes managing over 3,000 telephone interviews in total, as well as mail and Internet surveys.

In the past two years, Venture did the research for EPCOR and the District of Sooke regarding a sewer referendum. Venture's work was used to design the information package - the voting outcome was as predicted by Venture.

In addition, Venture has worked for other municipalities in the CRD and around the province in areas such as land use and zoning, taxation, and municipal infrastructure expenditures. As well, Venture has completed provincial research on behalf of the Local Government Manager's Association.

Venture completed the preliminary research for the Comox Valley Airport Commission, to examine support to borrow more than $8 million to expand the Comox Valley Airport.

Since 1993, Venture has conducted ongoing reviews of home energy use, home energy conservation measures, and consumer knowledge about special offers and incentives made to individuals who convert to natural gas. These studies also track the success of print and other forms of consumer information being recalled by households. Venture also conducted monthly tracking surveys of customer attitudes about the quality of natural gas installations, the quality of work provided by dealers, and overall satisfaction with services provided.

Venture Market Research was integrally involved in the branding process of Coast Capital Savings (formerly Pacific Coast Savings, Richmond Savings and Surrey Metro Savings) - planning, implementing and reporting on focus groups with employees and clients of the three credit unions, in addition to in-person interviews with senior management. Coast Capital Savings is the second largest credit union in Canada, with assets of over $6 billion.

Venture regularly undertakes large scale tracking surveys for the retail grocery store sector on Vancouver Island and the Mainland. These surveys measure customer attitudes and perceptions regarding advertising effectiveness, products, prices, and services offered at various stores. Venture's work in this area has been used as the basis for altering the media mix and has resulted in significant savings, while not reducing advertising awareness.

Venture also conducts employee surveys to measure employee satisfaction with all aspects of their work environment and provides mystery shopping services to evaluate store displays, staff service, and other aspects of store performance.

Venture has undertaken many public opinion polls that have been published by CanWest Global Communications over the past few years, covering local, provincial, and federal elections. Without exception, Venture's predictions have been correct.