Correlational Analysis between Competencies Acquired by Business Education Graduates and Required by the Financial Industry

The relationship between higher education and relevance to industry establishes the utilitarian purpose of the academe. Using a validated researcher made instrument and interview, the study assessed the competencies of the Financial Management and Accountancy graduates from school years 2012-2015 on three competence domains, namely knowledge, skills, and attitude. The descriptive statistics indicate that attitudinal competencies are very strongly acquired; knowledge and skill competencies, strongly acquired; while the financial industry highly requires all three competencies.  The gaps point to knowledge and skill competencies that are short of industry expectations. Inference considers the fast-changing dynamics among financial institutions attributing to e-commerce, ASEAN trade conditions, international and national financial regulatory agencies.  The study reveals a significant strong positive relationship with skills and attitude on the required and acquired competencies. However, the acquired and required competencies on knowledge have no significant relationship. The industry finds the graduates most prepared on attitude, followed by the skills and lastly, by the knowledge competencies.

Keywords: Competency gaps, Business Education Curriculum, knowledge, skills, attitude