Good afternoon everyone.

According to the University of Edinburgh, many students hold employability

important as they no longer see a degree enough to guarantee a satisfying future
career. This is all the more true in light of the current economic climate. Recruiters in
many sectors are looking for 'work-ready' graduates with clear evidence of job specific
skills in addition to high level graduate attributes.

But before delving into the complex concept of employability, we need to

understand the word itself. What is employability? The definition of employability itself
has been debated over the years. According to Hillage & Pollard, employability can be
defined as the ability to gain and retain fulfilling work. However, Brown objected to
Hillage & Pollard and defined employability as the relative chances of finding and
maintaining different kinds of employment. On the other hand, for Harvey & Locke,
employability is viewed to be the propensity of the graduate in exhibiting attributes that
employers anticipate will be necessary for the effective workflow of their organization.

And as it turns out, higher education institutions play a vital role in the
employability of graduates. In fact, as stated by Harvey and Knight, “The thing
employers generally value in graduates are things that most teachers in higher
education generally value.” Therefore, through conceptualization, we present this study
as a tracer on the factors affecting the employability of BSA graduates from 2015-2020
of MTIM.

This study is significant for many stakeholders but more so for two parties: one,
the graduate, and two, the employer. As reported by The Philippine Star in 2017, a
study by India-based employment solutions firm Aspiring Minds showed that only one
out of three Filipino college graduates is “employable,” which means about 65 percent
of graduates in the country do not have the right skills and training to qualify for the jobs
they are applying for.

On the flipside, in a previous Eagle Watch article on the same year, it was found
that out of 753,000 job vacancies recorded from January 2013 to June 2014, about
128,000 were difficult to fill, and the most frequently cited reasons for difficulty in filling
such vacancies were lack of competency or skills on the part of the applicant.

On the part of the educators, this dictates that the Higher Education curriculum
must incorporate opportunities to develop such skills in conjunction with subject-specific
skills and knowledge. This will enhance applicants' potential for success in the
recruitment process by producing 'business ready' graduates.

And therefore we face the statement of the problem of this research, “What is the
status of employability among BSA graduates from 2015 to 2020 of MTIM and what are
the factors affecting such employability?

By answering such question, we can address the objective of the study which are to:
 1. Determine the trend of employability of BSA graduates from 2015-2020 of MTIM,
2. Determine the length of time taken in finding employment after graduation, and
3. Determine the trend of employment available to BSA graduates of MTIM.

As limitations to this study, we will only focus on BSA graduates Class of 2015 to
2020 while using random sampling and online survey questionnaires due to the
restriction brought about by the pandemic. Moreover, external factors in employability
will not be taken into account in this study such as the attitudes of employers towards
the unemployed or the supply of appropriate jobs in the local economy.

As discussed, employability carries various definitions. It is the fitness or skill

possessed by a graduate. However, for purposes of this study, we measure
employability using the number of months or years a respondent took to land their first
job after graduation.

In the Philippines, policy makers are focusing on the gaps between the knowledge
and skills provided by higher educational institutions and the job opportunities available
in the labor market. In 2012, the Department of Labor and Employment showed in a
survey that lack of pertinent skills was the main reason why 36% of firms considered it
hard to fill vacancies. Socio-behavioral skills, such as managerial, leadership,
interpersonal and communication skills, are those that firms consider to be more difficult
to find in potential employees.

If we take a look specifically at the accountancy program in the Philippines, it seeks

to prepare the student for a general accounting career and eventual entry to any of the
four major fields of accountancy: public practice, commerce and industry, government
and education. However, one critical factor affecting employability of BSA graduates in
general is the passing of the Certified Public Accountant Licensure Examination. There
is a decreasing trend in both private and public higher education institutions on the
national passing percentage of the CPA licensure examination for the last five years.
Only 3 in 10 schools in the country are having institutional passing rate higher than the
national passing percentage, and majority or almost 70% of them obtained below the
national passing rate. In May 2019, only 1,699 out of 10,319 or a mere 16.46 percent
passed the CPA board exam. While in October 2019, only 2,075 out of 14,492
examinees or 14.32 percent passed the said exam. This factor, coupled with many
more, adds to the challenge in our BSA graduates to find suitable employment after
graduation.

Hence, to fully grasp an understanding of the factors affecting employability of BSA

graduates of MTIM, we need to discuss two important theories. First, the theory of
employability where it attempts to balance the “supply” side of the labor market with the
“demand” side of various industries in their worker qualifications. This means that
employability does not only rest upon factors affecting one party but to both employers
and job-seekers. Hence, employability components and external factors affecting such
must be considered.
 The second theory is the human capital theory which argues that employees have a
set of skills which can be improved upon through accumulation of training and
education. The human capital theory proposes that while wages are lowest in the
beginning stage of a career, background in education and training are characterized by
the highest rate of return both for workers and firms.

And so we present this conceptual framework for our study. Higher education
institutions contribute employability development opportunities to students who carries
with them their experience and extra-curricular activities along with the independent
variable of their socio-economic profile. These factors combined determines the
employability of a graduate upon active job seeking.

The study will be conducted at Masters Technological Institute of Mindanao in Iligan

City with BSA graduates of the same institution from 2015-2020 acting as the target
respondents.

This research will use simple random sampling as a design of selecting its actual
subjects. This method involves randomly selection of subset of a population where each
member of the population has an exactly equal chance of being selected. This used to
ensure high internal validity allowing randomization, and secures high external validity
allowing proper representation of the characteristics of the larger population.

In calculating for the sample size, the Cochran formula will be used. This formula
allows a calculation of an ideal sample size with a given desired level of precision,
confidence, and proportion of the attribute present in a population especially for larger
ones.

Survey questionnaires will be utilized in gathering data for this paper. Due to the
ongoing pandemic, questions will be relayed online through Google Forms in order to
minimize contact between respondents and researchers. Each respondent will be
thoroughly guided in answering the survey so that accurate answers will be reflected on
the results. Moreover, virtual interviews will be resorted to only when needed to
expound discussions regarding the questionnaire.

The questionnaire adopts the 2021 study of Hosain et al. and is divided into four
parts. The first part seeks the socio-economic profile of the respondent. The second
part tackles about the employment background, while the third part tackles the
difficulties and challenges in obtaining a job for the respondent. Lastly, the fourth part
talks about the perception of the respondent about him/herself regarding his/her skills
relevant to employment. In this part, the questionnaire uses the five (5) point Likert
Scale to reveal the applicants’ perception privacy, fairness and ethics regarding the use
of social networking information in order to check job candidates’ background. Score 1
represents strongly disagree, 2 represents disagree, 3 represents neutral, 4 represents
agree and 5 represents strongly agree.
 In assessing the validity of the instrument, content validity is ensured where it covers
a representative sample of the factors being determined as appropriate and relevant to
the employability of the respondents. Cronbach’s alpha is used in measuring the
internal consistency of the questionnaire, while Likert-scale is utilized for the skills being
rated regarding the graduates-respondent of the study.

Therefore, after acquiring list of MTIM BSA graduates from 2015-2020 from the
registrar, calculation of the minimum sample size will be made. Contact will be made
with the respondents who will answer the survey questionnaires on a voluntary basis.
After reaching the desired samply size result, analysis of the data will begin.

For the methods of estimation, frequency and percentage distribution will be used to
describe the socio-economic and employment profile of MTIM graduates where it is a
frequency distribution in which individual graduates is expressed as a percentage of the
total frequency equated to 100. This method can be calculated by dividing the value by
the total value then multiplying the result by 100.

Mean will be used to describe the status of employability among BS Accountancy

graduates of MTIM from 2015 to 2020. This method is used statistically. The assumed
mean method is used to calculate arithmetically a group data as the status of
employability among the BSA graduates of MTIM. To calculate this method by adding
all of the numbers together and dividing by the number of items in the set or we can call
it as averaging method.

Weighted mean will be used to assess the skills of the graduate by looking for their
first job and the reasons for them to be accepted in job. This is a type of average in
which weights are assigned to individual BSA graduates of MTIM in order to determine
the relative importance of each observation. To calculate the weighted mean/average
involves multiplying each data point in a set by a value which is determined by some
characteristic of whatever contributed to the data point.

And lastly, the Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis will be used to examine
the factors affecting the employability of BSA graduates of MTIM. This
estimates the parameters in a regression model by minimizing the sum of the factors.
This method draws a line through the data points that minimizes the sum of the squared
differences between the observed values and the corresponding fitted factors.

I hope that this discussion renders beneficial to the class and I thank our panelists
for sharing their time, knowledge and expertise, most especially to our instructor, Ms.
Resa Mae Laygan for her guidance, patience and wisdom throughout this entire
summer.

Thank you.