ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to evaluate the business education program of tertiary schools in General Santos City in relation to the manpower needs of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani Province and General Santos City. Included in the tertiary schools are, Holy Trinity College (HTC), Mindanao State University (MSU), and Notre Dame of Dadiangas College (NDDC). A sum of 254 graduates randomly selected, rendered a response rate of 87% (222 usable returns). From the graduating students, 215 (or 55%) were randomly selected. Twenty-eight faculty members were involved in this study. A total of 120 (60% of 200 firms) randomly selected gave a response rate of 71% (85 usable returns). These firms are engaged in banking and finance, fishing, pawnshops, hotels, import-export, agri-business, insurance, wholesale/retail, trading, manufacturing, travel agency, radio / communication, appliance, government offices.

In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics (mean, frequency, percentages, standard deviations) is utilized. The findings of this study indicate that the business education program context for five disciplines objectives are rated very clear and attainable while its contents are rated very appropriate, very relevant and skills are well-developed. Most of the students and alumni finished their high school in General Santos City with GPA of 85%-87% largely dominated by female and their ages within the range 20-21. The self-evaluation of the alumni showed that they rated themselves good for both pre-service and in-service except in the decision-making in the in-service wherein they rated themselves as very good.

Furthermore, this study reveals that the facilities (library, laboratory, and physical plant) of tertiary schools in General Santos City are rated good which means facilities are available and adequate. Meanwhile, the business education program is supported by a strong faculty staff that is composed of 38% (full-time/part-time) full-fledged masteral degree holders and 4% (full-time/part-time) doctoral degree holders. Moreover, the students rate the instructional techniques and procedures as fairly adequate. The average faculty load is 18 units while the average faculty-student ratio in Business education is 1:49. The laboratory class size is 38. The faculty of Business education are rated good by the students. The faculty members rank "coming to class regularly" as the most important and "logical reasoning and critical thinking" as number 2 in evaluating students. Unit load requirement is an average of 23 units. Survival rate is 32%. The Supervisor of the students of business education rated the over-all work practicum as moderately satisfactory. On the other hand, the students rated the work experience as moderately satisfactory.

Also disclosed in this study was the business academic linkage, where business sectors expressed the needed graduates for immediate hiring: Accountancy 62.2%, Management 35.3%, Accountancy with CPA license 22.4%, Marketing 18.8%, and Economics 14%. Preferred skills of Business education graduates by the business sectors are as follows: communication skills 57%, Research skills 49.4%, Computer application skills 30.6%, Human relations 14.1% and Conceptual skills 0%. Manpower needs for the next five years: Accountancy 45%, Economics 26%, Marketing 13%, Management 11.5% and Banking and Finance 3.5%. Also, it is revealed that 92.8% of the graduates are employed and 7.2% are self-employed. Rate of absorption is 25% fully employed, 67.5% underemployed and 7.2% of the graduates are self-employed. Seventy-one (13.5% of 524 graduates) took the CPA board examinations and 28 (39.43% of 71 examinees) passed. This, however, is only 5.34% of the total graduates in Accountancy (1990-1994). The employers rated the capabilities of the graduates in terms of knowledge (M = 2.2359), attitudes (M = 2.4502) and skills (M = 2.4502) as very good.

Based on the findings the following conclusions are drawn: The program context covering five disciplines is revealed to have very clear and attainable objectives as well as very appropriate and very relevant contents with skills well-developed.

The input variables, namely: the students, faculty and facilities have contributed significantly to the performance of the business education program.

The students, alumni and faculty become more meaningful and useful to the business education program as soon as they are processed. The process variables are as follows: instructional techniques and procedures, faculty load, faculty-student ratio, faculty evaluation, student evaluation, load requirement, survival rate, work experience, and business-academe linkage.

The performance of the business education programs is shown by their graduates’ employability, rate of absorption, board examination results and capabilities of the alumni.

Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that: (1) The faculty members be encouraged by administrators to pursue graduate studies as part of the faculty development plan for a very strong faculty staff. (2) The administrator give the library appropriate funds for more and better updated-book collections. Specifically, the college of Commerce / Accountancy / Business Administration (Business Education) be given more funds, for up-dated references for Accountancy, Management, Economics and Marketing. (3) The library staff be re-enforced by additional professional librarians and assistance to serve the library needs of students and faculty. (4) Additional computers and typewriters up-dated ones be added in the laboratory to ensure a 1:1 hands-on-learning. (5) Banking and Finance as a course be replaced with a non-board accounting related course with a blend of Economics for cognates or electives or a blend of Management or Marketing. (6) The teachers evaluation by students be utilized to enhance the teaching-learning conditions thus, a teacher must be informed about the ratings (and remarks) given to him for improvement purposes. (7) Teachers should be informed and conform with their evaluation ratings before such are submitted to the office as part of their records or file. (8) Require higher GPA for freshmen who do not wish to take Accountancy and offer non-board accounting courses to students who wish not to take CPA board examinations. (9) To ensure, more or less, that the accountancy graduates get their confidence to make it in the board, a CPA review center be a part of the program of the college of Business Administration. This would mean (on top of the existing Human Resources) getting or inviting CPA topnotchers as Reviewers. This would also require adequate and updated CPA review materials. (10) An alumni center for Placement purposes be a part of the Program of activities of the college. A directory of all alumni be produced to keep-in-touch with alumni everytime a need arises. (11) The business curricula include Internet education so that students will no longer be confined to the walls of their classrooms or the school library. Through electronic mail, they will get to interact and collaborate with other students from their class, from their school, from other schools in the country and from all over the world.

Acknowledgement

Back

This page is hosted by   Get your own Free Home Page