Academia Journal of Educational Research 6(5): 129-134, May 2018

DOI: 10.15413/ajer.2018.0107
ISSN 2315-7704
©2018 Academia Publishing

Research Paper

Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) communication research

graduates batch 2013-2016 employability

Accepted 4th May, 2018

ABSTRACT

Hernandez, Nelda R.*, Madrid,
Karla V., Juan, Jerome R. and
Bernarte, Racidon P.
The College of Communication
Polytechnic University of the
Philippines, Sta. Mesa, Manila,
Philippines
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
hernandez.nelda1017@gmail.com
, madrid.karla930@gmail.com,
juanjerome71@gmail.com,
racidonbernarte@gmail.com
This study analyzed the employment status of the Polytechnic University of the
Philippines- Communication Research Graduates Batch 2013 to 2016. By utilizing
the descriptive method, a total of 159 graduates were selected. The study
employed online survey through Google Form using standardized survey
instrument provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research, Extension
and Development. Mean, Percentile and Standard Deviation were used to analyze
the data. Results showed that majority of the respondents are college degree and
only few of them pursue advanced studies. In terms of ways finding their first job,
respondents said that online platforms and previous internships helped them in
securing employment. Moreover, 93.7% of the graduates are currently employed
and half of them were employed in a span of 1-6 months after graduation.
Furthermore, 60.4% of them are working related to their course of study in
college. Communication and Critical Thinking Skills are the prominent skills they
learned in PUP.
Key words: Communication research, employment, skills, competencies.

INTRODUCTION

Filipinos are known for showing great value for education,
where, in fact, Philippines gathered 96.5% simple literacy
and 90.3% functional literacy rate on its 2016 survey, cited
by the Philippine Statistics Authority. According to Bañez
and Pardo (2016), in their article entitled “Licensure
Examination Performance of BSEd-Biological and Physical
Science Graduates in a State University in Northern
Philippines”, stated that education carries out the progress
of every aspects in the society. They added that every
nation’s asset is its people’s literacy more than anything
else. This proposes that education and literacy makes
every nation competent which leads to future success in all
aspects.
The eagerness of the Filipino youth to learn and finish
college remains the reason of many aspiring “Iskolar Ng
Bayan” to gain admission into the well-known state
universities in Philippines. The Polytechnic University of
the Philippines (PUP) is the largest state university in the
country which was founded in the year 1904 and later
expanded with more than 70,000 students and 22
branches and campuses throughout the country. This
expansion allows education to be more accessible among
willing and deserving Filipino youth. PUP is a highly
competent, public, non-sectarian, government and non-
government subsidized and governed by Republic Act
Number 8292 known as the Higher Education
Modernization Act of 1997. Its Implementing Rules and
Regulations are contained in the Commission on Higher
Education Memorandum Circular No. 4, series 1997, with
primary task to develop the potential of the youth of the
country by honing their intellectual capacity and well-
being. `
Based on the official website of PUP, majority of the
students belong to the economically challenged level of the
 Academia Journal of Educational Research; Hernandez et al.
society. Thus, PUP commits to its vision and mission by
providing quality higher education to deserving and
qualified Filipino youth.
In terms of accessible education for all, PUP is one of the
112 state universities and colleges (SUCs) to benefit from
the duly signed law by President Rodrigo Duterte; the
Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, a law
providing free tuition for students enrolled in SUCs.
In its increasing demand, PUP and its colleges take pride
in maintaining excellence. As stated in the official website
of the university, most of its alumni have successfully
landed jobs immediately after graduation. The College of
Communication (COC) is one of the prominent colleges in
PUP. COC upholds quality and excellence and it has proven
its competence as educational institution - evident to its
laurels - recognitions and contribution to the country’s
mass media. COC has produced media practitioners and
global communication professionals who are passionate
not just on work, but also in society at large. It bears the
distinction of being the first communication school in the
Philippines to have achieved Level III Accredited Status
awarded by the Accrediting Agency Chartered Colleges and
University in the Philippines (ACCUP). This recognition
was achieved in 2008 to its two programs – Broadcast in
Communication and Journalism.
On the other hand, the Communication Research
program, initially offered in 2006 as Bachelor in
Communication Research, was later renamed as Bachelor
of Arts in Communication Research after the
implementation of approved BCR revised curriculum by
the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). PUP-COC
became the second communication school to offer
Communication Research in the Philippines. The revised
Bachelor of Arts in Communication Research curriculum
was designed to train future research practitioners to
become competent, critical thinker, and responsible with
high ethical awareness in the area of communication
research study and practice.
Among the four programs offered in COC, this research
study will only focus on Communication Research
program. There has been two tracer study previously
conducted. Thus, the first tracer study was conducted
among graduates of batch 2010, and the second tracer
4. To know if practicum/internship/on-the-job training
help in their work environment.
5. To assess if competencies and skills give them an edge
over other graduates.
Conceptual framework
The researchers applied the General Systems Theory of
Ludwig von Bertalanffy to show how the variables are
related to the study (Figure 1).
According to Littlejohn and Foss (2008), the basic idea of
input, process and output in groups has influenced how
130
study among graduates of batch 2011 and 2012. To
continue tracing the development, the researchers
conducted this tracer study to determine the employment
status of Communication Research graduates of batch
2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
In 2017 JobStreet.com survey, PUP was recognized as
top university of main source of fresh graduates to be
hired for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). As
reported in a Fresh Graduate Survey in 2016, PUP
graduates are generalized as very hard-working,
determined and non-complainant on their assigned tasks.
According to article published by the Summitexpress.com
(2017) JobStreet.com employer survey, most of the
graduates hired in 2016 were from PUP with 56%, most of
its graduates have dominated Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO), retail, real estate and manufacturing
industries - second on food and beverage, tourism,
materials and construction. While in terms of employers’
assessment on performances of fresh graduates, University
of the Philippines (UP) graduates scored highest, followed
by alumni of PUP and Ateneo De Manila University
(ADMU). Thus, this tracer study would like to determine
whether the acquired skills and competencies of
Communication Research graduates batch 2013 to 2016 is
related to their present job.
Objectives
This research study aimed to analyze the Employment
Status of Communication Research Graduates in
Polytechnic University of the Philippines from Batch 2013
to 2016.
Specifically, it sought:
1. To know if Communication Research graduates secure
jobs related to their course of study.
2. To distinguish among the acquired competencies in
college, what is the most useful to their current work?
3. To determine the extent of relevance of the acquired
competencies and skills to the demands of their present
job.
most researchers over the years modified the original
model. Researchers focus on the factors that affect the
group (input), what happens within the group (process),
and the results (output).
The input-process-output model provided the general
concept of the study for the guide and direction.
Substituting the variable of the study with the IPO model,
the researchers applied the following: Input refers to the
action of the researchers in terms of communicating or
reaching out to the graduates of each batch, another input
is the actual responds of the graduates to participate in the
survey.
These inputs will undergo certain processes to properly
 Academia Journal of Educational Research; Hernandez et al. 131

Figure 1: Modified input-process-output (IPO) model.

Table 1: Demographic profile of respondents.

Sex: Frequency Percentage

Female 116 73
Male 43 27
Total 159 100

Civil status:
Single 152 96
Married 7 4
Total 159 100

Educational attainment:
College Degree 146 92
Master's Degree 1 1
With earned units in Master's Degree 9 6
Earning units in Teaching Certification Program 1 1
law with units 1 1
with Professional Education units 1 1
Total 159 100

assess the results. These processes are specifically: data
encoding, analyzing and interpretation. Lastly, for the
output, the researchers will be able to know the relevance
of acquired skills and competencies in college to current
job of the respondents. From the process – the researchers
will come to know the employability of the graduates and
most importantly – the researchers will be able to produce
a reliable Tracer Study of the Polytechnic University of the
Philippines – College of Communication- Communication
Research graduates batch 2013 to 2016.
METHODOLOGY
This research study used the survey technique, which was
primarily employed to answer the research questions and
objectives. As for data collection, the researchers used
online survey through Google forms, links were sent via e-
mail (electronic mail address), Gmail and social media
platforms such as Facebook and messenger. Also a
Quantitative approach was used, which is unbiased,
numerical and more analytical in nature.
Data were obtained by locating the names, contact
number, address and email address of the Bachelor of
Communication Research (BCR) and Bachelor of Arts in
Communication Research (BACR) graduates batch 2013,
2015 and 2016 in the provided list of the PUP Alumni
Office. Moreover, due to some uncontrollable scenario, the
researchers were limited to the list of Batch 2014
graduates, wherein they requested the Records Office of
the university to provide at least names of batch 2014.
Data were collected through online survey via Google
forms in a specific time-frame within September 30 and
November 18.
As for the sampling technique, Stratified sampling was
used. In summary, there were total of 159 graduates who
participate in the survey which is higher than the target
sample of 143. Table 1 shows 100% response rate among
 Academia Journal of Educational Research; Hernandez et al. 132

Table 2: Period of time they acquired their first job.

Parameter Frequency Percentage

Less than a month 63 39.6
1- 6 months 81 50.9
7-11 months 6 3.8
1 year to less than 2 years 2 1.3
2 years to less than 3 years 2 1.3
others 4 2.5
*Not Applicable 1 0.6
Total 159 100.0

Table 3: Employment status of the respondents.

Parameter Frequency Percentage

Employed 149 93.7
Self-employed 7 4.4
Unemployed 2 1.3
Not applicable 1 0.6
Total 159 100.0

Table 4: Present job level position.

Parameter Frequency Percentage

Rank-and-file or clerical 50 33.6
Professional, technical or supervisory 84 56.4
Manager or executive 12 8.1
No Answer 3 2.0
Total 149 100.0
Note: Self-employed, unemployed &pursuing Law is excluded

its target respondents of batches 2013 to 2016.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 shows the demographic profile of the respondents
along sex, civil status and educational attainment. This
presents that a huge majority of the respondents were
female with 73%, whereas the rest of the respondents
were males with 27%. This is in line with the result of
previous Tracer Study of BCR batch 2011 and 2012 carried
out by Bernarte et al. (2014) in which female respondents
were also dominant in their study.
Moreover, almost all of the graduates were still single
which amounted to 96% of the total respondents, while
the remaining 4% were those who were married. This is
similar to the previous BCR Tracer Study that most of the
respondents were single at the time of data collection
(Bernarte et al., 2014).
Lastly, among all of the respondents, 92% have acquired
College Degree as their highest educational achivement,
whereas 6% of them have earned units in Master’s Degree,
while the remaining 1% was equally distributed among
the respondents who answered they earned units in
Teaching Certification Program (1), Laws with units
(1) and Master’s Degree holder (1).
The Table 2 shows that among the total number of
respondents who answered the question on how long does
it take to get their first job, one-half (50.9%) of the
respondents stated that they got their job within 1-6
months after graduation, followed by the respondents who
got their job in less than a month after graduation which is
39.6%, trailed by 3.8% who got their first job within 7-11
months. Moreover, some of the respondents got their job
while studying (2.5%), and also 1.3% got their first job
within 1 year to less than 3 years. On the other hand, one
of the respondents was “not applicable” (0.6%).
Table 3 shows that among the 159 respondents, almost
all were Employed (93.7%), whereas 4.4% of the
graduates were Self-Employed, while the some of the
respondents were Unemployed (1.3%). Thus two of the
respondents said “Not Applicable” as one of the
respondents is currently pursuing advance studies. This
shows that most of the respondents were employed,
indicating that the Philippines’ labor industry is
continually increasing, whereas unemployment rate is
decreasing.
Table 4 presents the Job level position of the
respondents’ Current Job. More than half of the
respondents said that they were Professional, Technical or
Supervisory which is 56.4%, followed by those who said
that they were Rank-and-file or clerical (33.6%), then
8.1% were Manager or Executive and 2% did not answer.
This table shows that as time goes by, the respondents was
able to get a higher position and majority of them were in
 Academia Journal of Educational Research; Hernandez et al. 133

Table 5: Relatedness of current job.

Variable Frequency Percentage

Yes 96 60.4
No 60 37.7
No Answer 1 0.6
Others 2 1.3
Total 159 100.0

Table 6: Nature of industry/ company.

Parameter Frequency Percentage

Academic 5 3.1
Advertising 7 4.4
Agricultural/Environment 1 .6
Banking &Finance 3 1.9
BPO 22 13.8
Construction/Engineering 4 2.5
Consultancy 5 3.1
Consumer Goods 1 .6
Entertainment 1 .6
Financial Service 2 1.3
Food & Beverage 2 1.3
Government 11 6.9
Insurance 1 .6
IT/ Computer/ Software 1 .6
Manufacturing 1 .6
Marketing Research 14 8.8
Media 4 2.5
Telecoms/ Communications 2 1.3
Legal 3 1.9
Retail 2 1.3
Services 2 1.3
Pharmaceuticals/ Medical 2 1.3
Tourism/Travel/Leisure 2 1.3
Real Estate 9 5.7
Others 14 8.8
No Answer 4 2.5
Mix Industry 34 21.4
Total 159 100.0

the position of professional, technical or supervisory. Reh
(2017) stated that those who were in the professional,
technical or supervisory levels were those who had three
years and up work experience.
This is parallel to the statement of Thompson (n.d.) in
his article entitled “The importance of education in finding
a job”. He pointed out that the higher the education levels
of an individual, the greater the chance to be promoted in
the company.
Table 5 shows the relatedness of Communication
Research to their current job; majority said that their
current job is related to their course (60.4%), 37.7% of
respondents said that their current job is not related to
their course, and the remaining 1.3% respondent did not
specify their answer including the one of the respondent
who pursue Law.
This results are contrary to the idea of Brad Plumer
(2013) that there were only 27% of the graduates that
secured jobs related to their course of study. On the other
hand, the results are in line the previous tracer study
conducted by the Communication Research Students batch
2014, that majority of communication research graduates
of 2011-2012 got their jobs related to their course of
study.
Moreover, this proves that Communication Research
accredited curriculum provide graduates with better
employability in line with their course of study. This also
supports the idea of Kinash (2017) that the university
must help the students develop their career. However, this
results disagree with the findings of UNESCO (2012) that
stated: oversupply of graduates in some fields was an issue
and most of the graduates were unable to find jobs related
to their specialization, such as nursing and information
technology due to lack of work experience.
Table 6 shows the highest number of graduates that
answered with multiple responds is considered as “Mix
 Academia Journal of Educational Research; Hernandez et al. 134

Industry” with 21.4%, followed by BPO with 13.9% and REFERENCES

the least of it are some industry that is not too related to
program, such as Agriculture, IT/Computer/Software,
Insurance and Manufacturing with only (0.6%).
The Media/Arts industry is more dominant as compared
with the previous tracer studies. Bernarte et al. (2014)
concluded in their study that the Media/Arts industry
ranks third as nature industry of the graduates. In line
with the released result of JobStreet.com employer survey,
most of the graduates hired in 2016 were from PUP (56%),
which most of its graduates dominated in Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO), retail, real estate and manufacturing
industries- second on food and beverage, tourism,
materials and construction.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Bañez S, Pardo C (2016). Licensure Examination Performance of BSEd-
Biological and Physical Science Graduates in a State University in
Northern Philippines. J. Educ. Human Res. Dev. Retrieved from
http://bit.ly/2FI0xRv
Bernarte R et al (2014). Polytechnic University in the Philippines College
of Communication Research Bachelor in Communication Research
Graduates Batch 2011 and 2012: A Tracer Study (Unpublished thesis).
Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines.
Employment Rate (2017). is Estimated at 94.3 Percent | Philippine
Statistics Authority. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/jz3RJp
Kinash S (2017). Snapshot in How To Make Graduates Employable Find
Out In 5 Minutes How You Can Improve Your Graduates’ Employment
Outcomes [Video file]. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/Hryctg
Philippine Statistics Authority (2017). Employment Rate in April 2017 is
Estimated at 94.3 Percent (2017-063). Retrieved from Philippine
Statistics Authority website: https://goo.gl/xMfprh
UNESCO (2012). Graduate employability in Asia. Retrieved from 978-92-
9223-395 2.

Grounded with the assessed results of the study, a vast

majority of the graduates were employed in a job related
to Communication Research program. It is highly evident
that the program is versatile in several facets as it covers a
varying nature and fields of research, such as advertising
and marketing.
The researchers extend the study’s significance by drawing
the following recommendations:

1. This study of PUP Communication Research graduates

batch 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 marked an important
result that can add to the body of knowledge in the field of
academe and corporate industry.
2. The results of the study will serve as a reference to
future researchers. On the other hand, there are some Cite this article as:
unspecified answers of the graduates due to online
platform that limits the supervision of the researchers in Hernandez NR, Madrid KV, Juan JR, Bernarte RP (2018). Polytechnic
data gathering. University of the Philippines (PUP) communication research
graduates batch 2013-2016 employability. Acad. J. Educ. Res. 6(5):
3. It is recommended that future researchers should 129-134.
minimize the use of online platforms, such as Google
Forms and other same online data gathering tools to Submit your manuscript at
accommodate and supervise every respondent. http://www.academiapublishing.org/ajer