Tracking the Employment and Employability Characteristics of the Graduates of the College of Teacher Education

Education is the basic response to challenges of the socio-economic status of a nation. The higher education, particularly, is tasked to develop human resources that will become a productive and relevantly employed member of the society. One of the important metrics in the implementation of the quality and relevant education is the realization of the graduates of the program in attaining their professional goals. Anchored on the concept that tracking system is a vital basis of information to determine the status of graduates of academic programs, this descriptive study aims at specifying the profile of the graduates of a Teacher Education Institution in their current employment and earned employability skills. Through the use of an institutionally crafted instrument adapted from the Commission on Higher Education, a total of 178 graduates from 2009 to 2017 identified via criterion-referenced purposive sampling positively responded to the survey instrument. Analysis revealed that the strategies employed for employment show that advertisement, referrals, and personal connections were the major approach employed by education graduates for employment. This study also unveils two major criteria when applying for a job: (i) Compensation, Opportunity for Development, and Proximity Criterion, and (ii) Time Flexibility and Socio-cultural Criterion. This study concludes that the learning and skills developed in the university were relevant to the present job of the graduates. The curriculum enhanced their problem-solving and research skills, as well as their communication and information skills. This made them satisfied in their current employment.

Keywords: Tracking graduates, education graduates, teacher education, employment criteria, alumni.