Students’ perceptions on fundamental skills for employment: An exploratory assessment

Employability is an issue of concern in many areas of economy. It is a critical issue for both government and Higher Education Institutions. There is a growing pressure for new graduates looking for lucrative employment and to compete for jobs fit for their educational attainment. That is why the current trend of placing importance on skills mandates the Higher Educational Institutions curriculum to integrate opportunities to develop the needed skills in collaboration with subject-specific skills and knowledge. This study was conducted to explore the students’ perceptions on the fundamental skills needed for employment. This study was conducted at the College of Business, Entrepreneurship and Accountancy of Cagayan State University-Andrews Campus, Tuguegarao City where the respondents were the graduating students of the Bachelor of Science in Accounting Technology. The respondents of the study were 111 graduating BSAT students for the School Year 2018–2019. Random sampling was used by the researcher in obtaining the results. The survey questionnaire used was patterned from the study conducted by Romer C. Castillo. The data gathered were tabulated, analyzed and interpreted using the descriptive statistics like frequency counts, rank, percentage and weighted mean. Descriptive method was used to come up with a good result of the study. Result of the study revealed that from the 4 factors of the fundamental skills, managing information got the highest category mean of 4.16 and thinking and problem solving got the lowest with a mean of 4.00. The study further unveiled that there is no significant difference on the perceptions of the student-respondents with regard to the fundamental skills needed for employment when grouped according to age and sex. From the results generated it is therefore recommended that the research should target more respondents and they should get sufficient sample with a longer time frame and additional studies should be conducted to identify other employability skills needed for future employment.