SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, AND VALUES NEEDED BY RECENT PHILIPPINE GRADUATES FOR EMPLOYABILITY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/psakuijir.2023.2Keywords:
Employability, Philippine Graduates, Skills, Knowledge, AttitudeAbstract
There is a dramatic shift in the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed by new university graduates in order to meet the demands of the local, national, and the global job market. This reality underscores the significance of identifying, analyzing, and understanding the attributes that constitute today’s definition of a “job-ready candidate.” This study aimed to solicit the perceptions of the parents, alumni, and graduating students for the school year 2021-2022 in one of the leading private higher education institutions in the Philippines towards the three most important skills, knowledge, and attributes that university graduates must possess. The study followed a cross-sectional research design involving qualitative variables from an online survey with open-ended questions. A reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze and determine the patterns of meaning based on the perceived competencies of the respondents. Results reveal that the three most important skills, knowledge, and attitudes are intertwined and overlapping: social and communication skills, course-based competencies, and ardent zeal, passion, commitment, and joy in one’s work. The study recommends a re-evaluation of the expected graduate attributes this Philippine university is aiming at, to build an enhanced graduate profile with valued skills, knowledge and attributes for the global contemporary workplace.
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