Employability study of the business administration graduates of catholic educational institution

Abstract

The employability of university graduates is a concern in higher education as labor markets change more and more rapidly. This study assessed the employment status of Business Administration (BA) graduates for the past five years and the skills and competencies acquired in the University from what competencies desired in the industry. The study used descriptive research design and there were 875 BA graduates-respondents. Results of the survey showed that majority of the graduates are employed on a permanent status and were able to get employed for an average of four months after graduation. It also showed that majority works in an industry that is directly aligned to their course or expertise and the learned skills/competencies are valuable and suitable in their jobs. Furthermore, it revealed that communication skills, human skills and decision making skills are the soft skills/competencies that they learned in the University and are useful in their present jobs. Meanwhile, among the Marketing graduates, advertising skills, marketing plan preparation and service/product presentation skills are the top three learned hard skills in the University while among the Finance and Financial Management graduates, their top three are financial report preparation, cash management and technical analysis.