Rex P. Bringula
Alexander C. Balcoba
ABSTRACT
Although there are plenty of Information Technology graduates, only a small portion of them are considered employable. The Philippine government, together with higher education institutions, is doing their best efforts to reduce the gap in the workforce. It has been mandated by the local governing body in the Philippines that universities and colleges must have industry partnership in order to balance theory and practice in the curriculum. Despite this straightforward solution, very few studies have been conducted in the Philippines to determine if the curriculum sufficiently addresses the needs of the industry. Toward this gap, this present study was conceived. Data gathered from 44 academics and 44 IT practitioners revealed that IT skills got the highest median rank among the skills. However, none of the 10 identified skills (7 soft skills and 3 general IT skills) had a median of first or second rank. Both set of respondents gave the same ranking on all the skills except on problem solving skills. IT practitioners gave a higher rank in importance on problem solving skill than those of the academics. It was worth noting that all identified skills were addressed in the current curriculum -- an indication that the curriculum was responsive to the needs of the industry. Recommendations for further research were also presented.
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