Employment Status of Graduates in Post Baccalaureate Degree in Business Administration of one Higher Education Institution in the Philippines

The study explores on the employability of the Master in Business Administration (MBA) graduates. Differences on the responses of the graduates were also tested in the impact of MBA program to their job performance when group according to employment data. Descriptive type of research method was utilized in the study. Results revealed that all of the surveyed MBA graduates or 100 percent are presently employed locally during the data gathering. The MBA degree program gives them better opportunity to get new jobs, to be in a regular or permanent status and be considered for a job promotion. Furthermore, salaries and benefits as well as career challenge are some of the common reasons of MBA graduates for staying in their current jobs. They see themselves in five years time in the company on how they could handle responsibilities and how far they could move up their positions in the organization. The group of respondents with rank or clerical position has significantly higher responses in terms of the impact of MBA program to their job performance compared to the group of graduates with professional/ technical/ supervisory and managerial/ executive positions. The impact of the MBA to job performance could not be considered as factor to describe the competency of the graduates in terms of curriculum and student outcomes. It is suggested that there is a need to strengthen the research activities of the graduates through the initiative of the university to conduct collaborative research studies with the industry where the MBA graduates are currently employed and make them as co-authors to maximize the utilization of their acquired knowledge and skills in addressing the needs and demands of their respective organizations.

Keywords: employability, business administration, student outcomes, curriculum