Employer Perceptions on Relevant Competencies and Career Readiness of Entry-Level College Graduate Employees in Selected Agribusiness Enterprises and Support Institutions in Laguna, Philippines

With agribusiness as one of the five priority areas of today’s government (Romualdez, 2017), identifying the competency needs of the industry and developing a matching workforce is important for development. However, few similar studies regarding agribusiness competencies have been done in a Philippine setting. Thus, this study provided insights on employer perceptions on relevant competencies and career readiness of entry-level college graduate employees participating in agribusiness/support institutions in Laguna, Philippines. Non-random sampling was conducted depending on the availability of employer-respondents. A list of agribusiness-related enterprises and support institutions was collated from primary data (list provided by local government units and site visits of select areas in the province of Laguna, Philippines) and secondary data (web searches and referrals). Out of the 94 contacted, a total of 51 employers in Laguna province (41 businesses and 10 institutions) participated in the study, primarily through self-administered questionnaires. Fifty-two entry-level employees in different job fields were grouped by degree and university for analysis. Twenty-two competencies derived by Miller et al. (2005) from previous studies were used for the evaluation. A Likert-scale was used to express an employer’s perceived level of importance, expectation, and performance for the competencies. Descriptive statistics such as median, quartile and interquartile ranges, cross-tabulations, chi-square test of association, and Cramer’s V for strength of association were used to analyze the given ratings. Findings revealed that communication-based competencies and technical competencies (agriculture/business-specific knowledges) remain the top relevant competencies in agribusiness. External factors are associated with the emergence of new competencies (such as globalization and computer technology-related skills) becoming increasingly important in agribusiness. Entry-level college graduates were mostly rated to be proficient and career ready; however, there are competencies such as negotiation (N-UPLB graduates with ABM degree) and interdependence of business functions (UPLB graduates with N-ABM degree) where further training is needed. Thus, students and professors of educational institutions may have to align their learning and teaching, respectively, in order to address lacking or underdeveloped competencies for better employability.