Educational Attainment and Job Performance in the BPO Industry: A Comparative and Correlational Study of Senior High School and College Graduates

Abstract

The Senior High School (SHS) curriculum was part of the revisions made by the Philippine government under RA 10533, which added two years of education to the previous curriculum. This program aimed to prepare graduates for tertiary education, employment, or entrepreneurship. However, recently, the effectiveness of the SHS curriculum was being questioned as the K-12 program was being revisited. As such, the researcher wanted to contribute to the discussion of the effectiveness of the program by evaluating its effectiveness in delivering on its promise of preparing its graduates for employment through a quantitative descriptive-comparative self-perception study. To fulfill this contribution, the study assessed the differences in job performance of 99 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) employees, comprising 49 SHS and 50 college graduates before AY 2021-2022, while also assessing the relationship between job performance and educational attainment through the lenses of Human Capital Theory by Becker. Through a t-test, it was observed that there was no significant difference in the job performance between SHS and college graduates who did not undergo SHS. For the correlation of the variables, findings indicate that there is no significant relationship between the two. These findings suggested further research into the relationship of both variables in the BPO industry, with other factors possibly mediating the effect of education in job performance.