Curriculum Relevance and Employability: A Tracer Study of Food Technology Graduates in Bulacan State University

Abstract

Every academic institution aspires to create graduates who are capable and well-educated and who will eventually be able to compete on a local and international level. As a result, employability becomes one of the important skills to maintain employment in the global industrial market. An extremely effective approach for assessing the whereabouts and performance of graduates in the workplace is a graduate tracer study. This study intends to ascertain the efficacy, sufficiency, and relevance of the food technology curricula as well as the program’s overall contribution to graduate development. Moreover, to assess the employability of BS Food Technology graduates from 2017 to 2022. A descriptive research design was utilized, and questionnaires were distributed online to the alumni from batches 2017-2022. The results showed that majority of the respondents were female and about 86.4% were employed predominantly working in Quality Assurance, followed by Research and Development. Most of the respondents successfully landed a job within a month or less. This shows that the program is in demand and effective, highlighting practical skills and critical thinking skills as the most useful skills in the industry. Overall, the program has an acceptable quality in terms of curriculum content; however, the program should strengthen its community involvement and external linkages. Owing to the small number of respondents of this tracer study, it is advised to expand the study’s coverage and number of respondents.

Presenters

Kristan Diane Canta
Assistant Professor, Science, Bulacan State University, Bulacan, Philippines

Details

Presentation Type

Poster Session

Theme

Learning in Higher Education

KEYWORDS

TRACER STUDY, EMPLOYABILITY, FOOD TECHNOLOGY, CURRICULUM