- By Rowena P. Calasara and Mary Earl Daryl A. Grio
ABSTRACT
The College of Engineering of Central Philippine University (CPU) in Iloilo City, Philippines is committed to produce quality engineering graduates. This graduates tracer study aims to determine the employment status of CPU engineering graduates. It provides valuable information such as employment profile, reasons for unemployment, relevance of undergraduate curriculum to their jobs, competencies and skills required, plans to pursue further studies and participation in seminars and trainings. A questionnaire survey form was developed to gather the required data. Statistical sampling methods were used to determine the required number of respondents. However, despite the different data-gathering strategies of the researchers, only 101 of 242 answered the survey. Majority of the respondents were male and many were graduates of BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. The results of the survey showed that most of the respondents studied engineering because of the expected immediate employment. It only took a month to half a year for most of them to become employed even though many do not have professional licenses yet. Their current job, at the conduct of the study, was also their first job and was relevant to their degree. Majority of them chose to work in local companies in the city. Problem-solving skills are fundamentally essential to their engineering careers.