The influence of participation in extracurricular activities to the employability of Industrial Engineering graduates of one Private University in the Philippines

Filipinos have been regarding education as the leading avenue of success. Having the system patterned from the American Education structure, education in the country provides basic learning needs and a foundation on which successive learning can be based on. Aside from traditional learning inside the classroom, extracurricular activities (ECAs) are also provided for students, which basically have the same goal as that of courses in a curriculum. These activities however, let the students have experiences not included in formal education. Moreover, ECAs are being promoted in some college institutions considering that it benefits students in ways that would prepare them for their future. Certain companies focus on investing on leadership development of their employees to make them globally competitive. This paper focused on determining the degree or extent of influence of ECAs to the employability of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Industrial Engineering graduates of Batches 2013, 2014, and 2015. A survey was administered to 43 sampled graduates. Logistic regression was used in determining the influence of participation in ECAs to the employability of the graduates. Correlational analysis showed that there exists a significant relationship between and among independent variables of number of jobs, number of initial interview, level of participation and soft skills developed through ECAs. Meanwhile, Paired Sample Means Test exhibited that at 95% level of significance, there exists no relationship between the soft skills possessed by the graduates and as expected by the company with which they are employed. Recommendations were provided to enhance the activities offered in UST towards increasing employability rate of graduate students.

Keyword – employability, extracurricular activities, Industrial Engineering, soft skills