From campus to career: Secondary teacher education graduates’ employment profile, programme satisfaction, and recommendations for improvement

Abstract

Alumni employment serves as a critical indicator of an educational institution’s quality. Furthermore, alumni feedback provides valuable information for programme sustainability. This graduate tracer study investigated the employment profile, programme satisfaction, and recommendations of Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED) graduates from a Philippine State University between 2019 and 2023, with the majority of respondents graduating in the two most recent years. Data were collected via a graduate tracer survey. The findings reveal a high overall employment rate of 87.86% among the traced graduates. However, a near-even distribution was observed between those employed as teachers (46.24%) and those in non-teaching roles (41.62%). Furthermore, private-sector employment (47.98%) surpassed public-sector employment (36.71%). An in-depth analysis reveals that among employed teachers, the private school sector predominates, whereas this trend is reversed for non-teaching roles. Notably, a significant proportion of graduates (68.22%) secured employment within six months of graduation. The respondents also reported being “very adequately prepared” in 21st-century skills. These results collectively underscore the graduates’ commendable employment and employability skills, as well as their overall satisfaction with their undergraduate training in secondary education. Finally, their recommendations for programme improvement coalesced into six overarching themes: curriculum and course content, experiential learning and practical training, student support and development, facilities and resources, administrative and policy improvements, and faculty and pedagogy.