Desired Teacher Education Graduate Attributes vis-a-vis Hiring-Related Requirements of Employers

Outcomes-based education (OBE) mandates higher education institutions (HEIs) to identify expectations and formulate institutional learning outcomes (ILOs) or graduate attributes (GAs) which distinguish their products from the rest. These ILOs or GAs are qualities, skills, and understanding which students must develop and possess during their time with the institution and carry and apply as professionals. Among teacher education (TE) graduates, an HEI hopes to see outstanding instructional performance which is crucial to the latteru0027s studentsu0027 progress. Schools which screen teacher-applicants therefore want to hire and keep those who possess commendable instructional performance and show ideal characteristics. Faced with the challenges of implementing the new TE curriculum approved in 2017, the investigators wanted to know the requirements of school-employers, if these requirements match the newly formed ILOs or GAs of Angeles University Foundation (AUF), and if AUF TE graduates manifest the requirements and the GAs at work. They interviewed top employers of the TE graduates of AUF as respondents through purposive sampling. Employer-participants involved in the hiring process identified qualifications, work-related characteristics, demands and expectations which are classified as knowledge, skills, values and described the TE graduates of AUF. Results show that the hiring-related requirements are aligned with the ILOs or GA of AUF while some are actually manifested by its TE graduates who practice the profession. Results have interesting implications for the training of pre-service teachers, the formation of GA, and the desires of employers especially in the Philippine context.