Employability of Computer Engineering Graduates during Academic Year 2015-2016 and their Lifelong Learning Options

Employability of graduates is considered important output and measure of quality among higher education institutions. Identifying the employment status of the graduates is one of the objectives of this study specifically for Computer Engineering Graduates of batch 2016 as well as determining the relevance of school related factors in their job placement in terms of curriculum, skills learned from the university and work values. Descriptive type of research was utilized in the study. Result of the survey showed that 83.3 percent of the computer engineering graduates of one Higher Education Institution in the Philippines are gainfully employed with job assignment relevant to computer, electronics and information technology. They considered salaries and benefits as well as career challenge as top reasons for accepting and staying on their present jobs. They also believed that the knowledge and skills they learned most from the University in terms of Information Technology and communication have contributed much to their job placement with hard, leadership and perseverance as topmost work related values. In terms of curriculum, they considered the knowledge in MS Office Applications, Engineering Management, Data Communications/ CISCO Networking, Computer Programming and Computer Troubleshooting/Maintenance as very relevant to their job placement. The lifelong learning options include attending graduate studies and short courses, taking difference certifications CISCO Networking, Project Management Professional, Certified Quality Engineer

Keywords: Employability, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, Lifelong learning