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Strand and Statehood Predictors of Senior High School Graduates: A Tracer

Study

Article  in  International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research (IJSBAR) · January 2021

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 International Journal of Sciences:
Basic and Applied Research
(IJSBAR)
ISSN 2307-4531
(Print & Online)

http://gssrr.org/index.php?journal=JournalOfBasicAndApplied
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Strand and Statehood Predictors of Senior High School

Graduates: A Tracer Study

Alfredo C. Padios, Jr.a*, Rovelyn L. Lejanob , Sophia Ann T. Gorospec, Vanessa

L. De Asisd

a,b,c,d
Aurora State College of Technology, Zabali, Baler 3200, Aurora, Philippines
a
Email: [email protected]
b
Email: [email protected]
c
Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Philippines has now graduated a couple of Senior High School (SHS) batches since its major education reform
but not much was studied yet regarding its graduates. In view of tracing and learning of their status relative to
the curriculum‟s exits, this study is conceptualized. It aimed at profiling Aurora State College of Technology
(ASCOT) SHS graduates and determining which of these profiles explain statehood and SHS strand. Alignment
of respondents‟ SHS strands to their college courses and the absorption rate of the college were also determined.
A researcher-developed questionnaire was administered to 2018 and 2019 ASCOT SHS graduates. Responses
received were screened, grouped according to strand then randomly sampled. A total of 523 responses remained
for analysis. This corresponds to 2.87% margin for error which is within the traditional 5%. Results showed that
majority of the graduates are within the ages 19-21, a huge majority of the respondents belong to the lower
income categories and that the number of male graduates is at par with females. Out of all the respondents
enrolled in college, only one-half have courses aligned to their SHS strands while ASCOT has an absorption
rate 75.42%. Relative to their statehood, 90.82% pursued college education, 4.02% are employed, 1.15% are
entrepreneurs and 4.02% are layabouts. Sex, age and monthly family income explained the respondents chosen
strand. Both sex and monthly family income explained the statehood.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Corresponding author.

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Basic education schools should establish a career guidance program that help students choose their SHS strand
aligned to the college degree they wish to earn. GAD trainers are also recommended to include in their
campaign the non-exclusivity of SHS strands and college courses for the rich or poor, male or female. TVL
courses must be offered and strengthened in education as this is where many poor students enroll in view of
skills ready for employment and entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Curriculum exits; Graduates Statehood; K to 12 graduates; Senior High School; Tracer study.

1. Introduction

Before its major educational reform, Philippines is among the three countries in the world with only 10 years of
basic education. The 2013 Basic Education Act mandated the two years of senior high school (SHS) in addition
to four years of junior high school, six years of elementary and a compulsory Kindergarten. This program is to
give leeway for students of all learning abilities to develop and master concepts and skills and lifelong learning.
The first two batches of Senior High School graduates have already exited the K-12 curriculum, a milestone of
the Department of Education. Philippine K to 12 curriculum is designed with four exits assuring that the
graduates have options they can take after finishing the last stage of high school. Graduates can choose whether
to opt for higher education, middle level manpower, entrepreneurship, or employment. These can provide
different pathways for the graduate for growth and productivity in the country which the curriculum has been set
to achieve. With these many options, graduates can now have broader opportunities and choices than the
previous curriculum. Aurora State College of Technology (ASCOT), a public state college in the province of
aurora, offered the SHS program to aid the Department of Education which, at the time of implementation, is
not yet ready for the wave of enrollees. ASCOT then offered two tracks: the Academic and Technical-
Vocational-Livelihood (TVL) Track. Under the academic track are strands made available for the students to
take which are: General Academic Strand (GAS), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM),
Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) and Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM). The strands in
TVL includes Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Home Economics (HE), Agri-Fishery Arts
(AFA) and Industrial Arts (IA). Relative to curriculum exits, no studies were conducted yet to trace the SHS
graduates. One tracer study focused on the alignment of courses enrolled in college to their SHS strands [1].
Other tracer studies were conducted to college graduates [2,3,4,5] while there are also those that evaluates their
graduate school programs [6]. Conducting a tracer study that focuses on SHS curriculum exits would be unique.
With the program still freshly implemented in the Philippines, little is known about the outcome of the
educational reform as there have not been any literature written about the topic. The tracing of the graduates‟
statehood is an endeavor to ensure if the program has served its purpose in addressing the need for producing
lifelong learners. Oscillated from the study of Teichler [7], this research will provide insights to policy-making
bodies on how their programs have been performing. Seminar/training providers and educators will also gain
new knowledge to impart to the public. While it is tempting and more interesting to make the study so
comprehensive that it encompasses all aspects of socio-economic profile of respondents as well as factors in
their career decisions, the researchers decided to limit the study into age, sex, civil status, monthly family
income, and strand. Their chosen post-secondary path is limited to studying, employed, entrepreneur and
layabout. Reasons for career decisions, why they chose further studies or work were not investigated but their

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being layabout is of utmost interest to the researchers in view of helping sectors working in this sector such as
SHS providers through their career guidance office, extensionists, social workers and even the local government
units, mitigate this aspect of post-secondary life.

1.1 Objectives

Generally, this study aimed to determine the statehood of ASCOT-SHS graduates from 2018 to 2019 and the
factors explaining their statehood. Specifically, this study sought to:

 Determine the respondents‟ profiles.

 Determine the absorption rate of ASCOT in its college programs.
 Determine whether the statehood of respondents is aligned to their SHS strands.
 Determine which of the respondents‟ profiles explain their chosen SHS strand.
 Determine which of the respondents‟ profiles explain their statehood.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 Research Design

This study employs the descriptive-correlational research design. Descriptive for problems number one to four
and correlational for the fifth problem.

2.2 Research Site and Participants

The study was conducted at the Senior High School Department of Aurora State College of Technology
(ASCOT), Brgy. Zabali, Baler, Aurora, Philippines where respondents were the two batches of Senior High
School graduates: ABM, GAS, STEM, HUMSS and TVL. The Senior High School graduates of year 2018 were
composed of 480 while in year 2019, the school had 439 graduates with a total of 919 respondents.

2.3 Instrumentation

Researchers utilized a questionnaire which is composed of six parts. The first part is a letter asking the graduates
to participate in the survey which shall be used for research study. It also mentioned that upon answering, they
expressed informed consent that their profile shall be used for analysis, but their identities shall not be revealed.
On the second part is the respondents‟ profile and the third to sixth part are questions on the statehood of Senior
High School graduates. The third part seeks employment information of the respondents who are currently
working. The fourth seeks to gather data regarding current school and the programs/courses that they are taking.
On the fifth includes the entrepreneurship nature or statehood of those graduates that has their own business. It
needs to gather data regarding the type of business the respondents have, their business scale, the form of
business and their average monthly income. Meanwhile, the last part of the questionnaire pertains to layabout
respondents and reasons for being so.

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2.4 Data Collection and Statistical Techniques

Questionnaires were administered through paper and pen to respondents studying at ASCOT while the rest were
sent online via various social media platforms. There was a total of 752 collected responses. Incomplete
responses, however, were removed. Graduates from GAS were the least numbers to respond in the survey, this
was made the baseline for sampling. Ratio and proportion were employed to determine how many were to be
removed from the other strands for equal representation of groups. Calculation showed that a total of 523
responses remain for data analysis which satisfies the condition for multinomial logistic regression that a
minimum of 500 samples is necessary [8]. This corresponds to 2.87% margin for error which lies well within
the traditional 5.00%. A simple fishbowl sampling technique was employed to randomly pick the needed
number of samples in each strand.

Table 1: The respondents and sample of the study at 2.87% margin for error.

Strand Population Sample

Accountancy, Business and Management (ABM) 61 35

General Academic Strand (GAS) 322 183

Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) 86 49
Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) 116 66
Technical Vocational-Livelihood (TVL) 334 190
Total Number of Respondents 919 523

Frequency counts and percentage calculations were employed to answer the problem number one to four. Since
the dependent variables are nominal data, multinomial logistic regression was employed to determine the
predictors of strand and statehood. Predictors for statehood were sex, civil status, monthly family income and
age. Civil status was not included in the analysis since there were only seven married respondents. Logistic
regression requires at least ten cases per variable [9]. Senior high school strand was not also included as it
violates the assumption of multicollinearity. Monthly family income, which was stratified into seven groups
based on the study of Albert and his colleagues [10] , was transformed. There were no respondents from the
“rich” category, one (1) from the “high income” group while there were only two (2) from the “upper middle
income” group. These groups do not qualify for the rule of thumb. Hence, both were merged into “Middle
middle income” group. What remains for the monthly family income was an ordinal data with four levels.
Predictors for SHS strand are age, sex and monthly family income following the same treatment for statehood.
Reference categories were the highest categories in each variable. In strand, TVL was the reference category
while in monthly family income, “middle middle income” was the reference category. In statehood, “studying”
was used as the reference group. To determine the predictors of strand, sex and monthly family income were
treated as factors while age was a covariate being a continuous data. To determine the predictor of statehood,
sex, strand and monthly family income were all treated as “factors” while age was a co-variate.

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3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Profile of the respondents

First result present in table 2 shows the gathered profile of ASCOT-SHS graduates from 2018 and 2019 where
majority are 19 to 21 years old. Those who are 20 years or older are usually from the first batch (2018) while
those 19 years or younger usually come from the second batch (2019).

Table 2: Profile of the respondents.

Profile of the Respondents f %

Age
18 & below 35 6.69%
19 177 33.84%
20 206 39.39%
21 86 16.44%
22 & above 19 3.63%
Sex
Male 249 47.61%
Female 274 52.39%
Civil Status
Single 516 98.66%
Married 7 1.34%
Strand
ABM 35 6.69%
GAS 183 34.99%
HUMSS 49 9.37%
STEM 66 12.62%
TVL 190 36.33%
Monthly Family Income
Poor 316 60.42%
Low Income (but not poor) 127 24.28%
Lower middle income 45 8.60%
Middle middle income 32 6.12%
Upper middle income 2 0.38%
Upper income (but not rich) 1 0.19%
Rich 0 0.00%
Statehood
Layabout 21 4.02%
Entrepreneur 6 1.15%
Employed 21 4.02%
Studying 475 90.82%
TOTAL 523 100%

In ASCOT SHS, the number of male graduates is at par with the female unlike the case in the national scenario
where females have always been outperforming males in terms of pursuing education [11]. This may be due to
the offering of Industrial Arts in the TVL tracks where most students are male. In fact, students in the industrial
arts strand such as masonry and welding, automotive servicing, and electrical installation are all males. Most
graduates had strands in TVL track and GAS. The same pattern is observed in the Philippine national enrollment
trend [12]. More enrollment in TVL could be attributed to two factors. One is because the school is a
technological school offering courses in the industrial and information technology and hospitality management.
All of which are also offered in TVL strands. Another reason is that students are aiming for employable skills in

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the near future. At the time of survey, only 1.34% of the graduates are married. This is way lower than 1 out of
3 Filipinos who got married by age 20 in 2017 [11]. Their being busy in school and not belonging to a group
that allows and even encourage early marriages explain why only few ASCOT-SHS graduates got married at
such age. Three-fifths of ASCOT SHS graduates belong to poor families while one-fourth belong to low income
(but not poor) ones. These two classes comprise about 85% of the graduates. Only 15% belong to the middle-
income class. This contradicts the findings of Albert, Santos, & Vizmanos [10] which showed that 63% of
Filipinos in the rural areas belong to the poor and low income classes while 35% belong to the middle class.
This may be attributed to the fact that ASCOT is a public school that is a beneficiary of SHS Voucher Program
(VP), meaning, students enroll for free or if not qualified for the program, the tuition fee is only one-half that of
private senior high schools‟. SUCs likewise are not allowed to collect additoin fees on top of these VP as
stipulated in CHED Memorandum order no. 35, s. 2016 or the Guidelines for Operation of SHS in State
Universities and Colleges and Local Univerities and Colleges. A large bulk (90.82%) of graduates pursued
higher education courses despite the rationale of the K-12 program that promises job-ready and entrepreneurial
skills after graduation proving again that more Filipinos preferred a college diploma over an immediate
employment [13]. In comparison, the number of students enrolled in higher education is similar to the findings
of Orbeta and his colleagues [12] where 89% of their respondents intend to go to college. The number of
students pursuing higher education courses, nine-tenth, is high compared to the six out of 10 findings as cited by
then Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV [14]. This must be due to the implementation of RA 10931 otherwise
known as Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act which provides free tuition and miscellaneous
fees for all students enrolled in state colleges and universities (SUC) in the Philippines. Only four percent of the
graduates were employed while barely more than one percent ventured in their own businesses as is expected for
groups whose bias favor on securing a college degree. The difference with the findings of Orbeta & Potestad
[15] of 20% is explained by their inclusion of grade 10 completers in their survey and that self-employed,
entrepreneurs in the current study, were also counted in the “employed” group. It is also worth considering that
the locality of the current study is a rural area where employment opportunity is less than the urbanized ones.
High turnout of senior high school graduates pursuing higher education may be a success to RA 10931 but this
could be a point that needs further discussion in part of the K to 12 curriculum since it may have defeated the
design where graduates should be equipped with entrepreneurial and job-ready skills. Private companies openly
expressed their concerns during educational conferences about the K-12 graduates mostly referring to their
being underqualified for the world of work due to lack of trainings. Philippine Institute of Corporate Directors
had yet to see the “proof of concept” [16], People Management Association of the Philippines says that majority
of employers still favor college graduates over SHS graduates [17] while some employers find it risky to hire K-
12 graduates [18]. Reasons for being layabout of ASCOT-SHS graduates were solicited. Almost three-fourths
of the respondents claimed that finance-related matters were the reason for their not going to school. Almost
one-fifth of the layabout graduates claimed that their lack of interest brought them into such statehood. An
analysis performed by Maligalig and Albert [10] showed that in 2002 and 2004, secondary education students‟
reasons for not going to school is led by lack of interest and finance-related reasons. Lack of interest for boys
also cause them to leave tertiary education [4]. Health and pregnancy are the other two reasons for the graduates
not pursuing tertiary education, employment or business adventures. Region III data, the region in the
Philippines where respondents are situated, for pregnancy of girls aged 15-19 is 9% which is way more than the

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girl respondents who got pregnant in the current study.

Table 3: Reasons for being layabout.

Layabout f %
Financial 15 71.43%
Health 1 4.76%
Lack of Interest 4 19.05%
Pregnancy 1 4.76%
TOTAL 21 100%

Enterprising graduates were also profiled. Most of them are merchandizers in micro scale. Two-thirds solely
own their business while one-third have partners. As may be expected for beginners, all of them belong to the
low-income class.

Table 4: Profile of respondents involved in entrepreneurship activities.

Profile of Enterprising Respondents f %

Type
Merchandising 5 83.33%
Manufacturing 1 16.67%
Scale
Micro 6 100.00%
Small 0 0.00%
Medium 0 0.00%
Ownership
Sole Proprietorship 4 66.67%
Partnership 2 33.33%
Monthly Income
less than 9,520 3 50.00%
Between 9,520 and 19,040 3 50.00%
TOTAL 6 100%

Three-fourths of the employed graduates were hired by private employers, about one-fifth are in the government
service and one employed respondent overseas. Most of them are full-time employees while very few are part-
time workers. Some of them were already absorbed in their work immersion venue, another unique attribute of
the senior high school program around the Philippines. Three-fourths of the 21 employed respondents are in the
sales/service and the rest are in elementary occupations. Only the OFW respondent make it to the middle class
and the rest of employed graduates have salary in the lower-income class.

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Table 5: Profile of employed respondents.

Profile of Employed Respondents f %

Employer
Private 16 76.19%
Government 4 19.05%
Abroad 1 4.76%
Employment Status
Full-time 18 85.71%
Part-time 3 14.29%
Occupation
Sales/Service Worker 16 76.19%
Farmer 1 4.76%
Laborer 3 14.29%
Security 1 4.76%
Monthly Salary
less than 9,520 10 47.62%
Between 9,520 and 19,040 10 47.62%
Between 19,040 to 38,080 1 4.76%
TOTAL 21 100%

3.2 Absorption rate

Since the senior high school program of ASCOT is only an assistance to the Department of Education while
they prepare for the full implementation of the major education reform, the researchers also took an interest in
the percentage of graduates actually continuing to enroll in the higher education department of the said
institution as this may be used for planning by school administrators. This is called absorption rate. Among the
studying respondents, three-fourths are enrolled in ASCOT for tertiary education.

Table 6: Higher education institution the respondents are enrolled at.

College or University f % relative to all studying respondents

Aurora State College of Technology (ASCOT) 358 75.37%
Non-ASCOT 117 24.63%
TOTAL 475 100%

3.3 Alignment of statehood to SHS strand

Senior high school graduates in the Philippines could be entrepreneurship-ready due to the offering of four units
of entrepreneurship subject in grade 12. Though one out of five enterprising respondents claimed that his/her
business is not aligned to his/her strand while four-fifths of all employed ASCOT-SHS graduates claimed that

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their work is not related to their strands. Their college courses, however, were off with the specialization they
took during their senior high school. One-half of the graduates took an undergraduate degree that is not aligned
to the strand they took in senior high school. This is low compared to the 80.67% of Bulacan State University
Laboratory High School [1]. This may be attributed to the smaller survey of group of the former as well as
admission policies of SHS and higher education providers. In ASCOT, students can choose any degree program
to enroll to regardless of his/her SHS strand. There is also no policy for its SHS admissions. Career guidance
plays an important role in helping students choose their senior high school strand which they really like to
pursue as a degree in college. Such program in the Philippines was only enacted in 2018, approved into law
known as RA 11206 in February 2019 and disseminated by the Department of Education (DepEd) in March
2019 - almost three years after the enrollment of the first senior high school students. Even with such
predicament, private and public basic education providers conducted career guidance programs. Unluckily, less
than half of these schools, 46.1% in private while 30.5% in public schools, helped students on the SHS strand to
take [13]. Posing even more difficulty in achieving a higher SHS strand and college course alignment is the
availability of strands to choose from. While there is little constraint in the schools division level on the
availability of SHS strands, great difficulty exists when looking at schools where practically none of them offer
all SHS specializations. A data from Philippine Institute of Development Studies for instance cited that 64% to
74% of schools do not offer ABM, HUMSS and STEM [19]. Travelling to other municipalities or even
barangays for the choice of SHS strand is highly unlikely due to additional cost. Hence, students who prefer
other strand settle on the available ones then enroll a college course of choice afterwards which is likely not
aligned.

Table 7: Showing whether the respondents' statehood is aligned with their SHS strand.

STATEHOOD f %
Higher Education Course
Aligned 238 50.1%
Not aligned 237 49.9%
TOTAL 475
Occupation
Aligned 4 19.05%
Not aligned 17 80.95%
TOTAL 21
Entrepreneurship
Aligned 5 83.33%
Not aligned 1 3.03%
TOTAL 6 100%

3.4 Predictors of SHS strand

Multinomial logistic regression (MLR) analysis was employed to determine which of the independent variables
(age, sex, and monthly family income) would predict the senior high school strand they would choose. First

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table (8) presented was to determine whether addition of independent variables would cause a change in the
model, strand. Result showed that the predictors together can significantly explain the changes in the dependent
variable.

Table 8: Model fitting information for the model “strand”.

Model Fitting Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests

Model -2 Log Likelihood Chi-Square df Sig.
Intercept Only 529.347
Final 317.514 211.833** 20 .000

In table 9, the result of regression analysis for the model “strand” is presented. For every unit increase in age,
the odds of a student taking ABM rather than TVL decreases by a factor of 0.581 ceteris paribus. This is also the
case among GAS, HUMSS and STEM students. The older they are, the more likely they are to take TVL rather
than academic track.

Table 9: Parameter estimates for the model, strand.

Strand 95% Confidence Interval for Exp(B)

(The reference category is “TVL”) Sig. Exp(B) Lower Bound Upper Bound
ABM Age 0.010 0.581** 0.383 0.880
[Sex=.0] 0.000 6.051** 2.474 14.799
[MFI =1.00] 0.009 0.117** 0.024 0.581
[MFI =2.00] 0.189 2.877 0.595 13.909
[MFI =3.00] 0.248 2.884 0.478 17.405
GAS Age 0.000 0.528** 0.412 0.675
[Sex=.0] 0.000 3.042** 1.921 4.817
[MFI =1.00] 0.096 0.415 0.147 1.170
[MFI =2.00] 0.142 2.375 0.749 7.529
[MFI =3.00] 0.276 2.164 0.540 8.678
HUMSS Age 0.001 .515** 0.352 0.755
[Sex=.0] 0.000 7.068** 3.333 14.985
[MFI =1.00] 0.943 .941 0.176 5.031
[MFI =2.00] 0.290 2.671 0.433 16.492
[MFI =3.00] 0.647 .532 0.036 7.919
STEM Age 0.001 .572** 0.407 0.805
[Sex=.0] 0.161 1.574 0.834 2.969
[MFI =1.00] 0.000 .058** 0.020 0.173
[MFI =2.00] 0.776 1.179 0.379 3.663
[MFI =3.00] 0.507 .604 0.137 2.671

**Highly significant

Respondents‟ sex also explained their choices of specialization. The odds of a student taking ABM rather TVL
is 6.051 times higher for female than male ceteris paribus. Female students are also more likely to enroll in GAS
and HUMSS rather than in TVL. Trend is however not true to STEM mainly because this strand usually
prepares for engineering courses which is a field composed mostly of male. Some areas in the TVL track usually
require physical works like assembling and disassembling an engine, welding and electrical installation which is
usually performed by male while there are also courses in the home economics and information and

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communications technology. But only few enrolled in these strands. Monthly family income is also seen to be
explaining the SHS strand students take. Students from the poor-income families are 1/0.117 or 8.55 times more
likely to take TVL rather than ABM. Students from the poor-income families are also 17.24 times more likely to
enroll in STEM rather than TVL. Both of these results showed that poorer students tend to choose TVL perhaps
in view of skills ready for employment.

3.5 Predictors of Statehood

First table (10) presented was to determine whether addition of independent variables would cause a change in
the model. This tests the null hypothesis that all predictors in the model have no effect on the dependent
variable. Chi-square computed at 58.665 has p-value of 0.000 which is less than 0.05 level of significance
indicating that null hypothesis is rejected. Therefore, the predictors together can explain the changes in the
dependent variable.

Table 10: Model fitting information for the model “Statehood”.

Model Fitting Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests

Model -2 Log Likelihood Chi-Square df Sig.
Intercept Only 227.760
Final 169.095 58.665** 27 .000

In table 11, the result of MLR analysis is finally presented. When layabout respondents are compared to
“studying”, only sex is a significant predictor. Males are 1/0.346 or 2.89 times more likely to be layabout rather
than studying than females ceteris paribus. Previous studies in the Philippines support these findings [20], [21].
Filipino female students have always outperformed their male counterparts in terms of pursuing education. This
is also the case in many countries except in Africa, Middle East and South Asia where more boys are enrolled in
schools than girls [21]. When enterprising respondents were compared to “studying”, monthly family income
comes out to be a significant predictor. Respondents from both the poor and low-income classes are more likely
to venture in entrepreneurship than those from the „middle middle‟ income class. Mansor [22] hinted that
financial reasons may also be possible factor in venturing into Malaysian SMEs. Respondents‟ age and the
senior high school strand they graduated do not explain any changes in their statehood.

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Table 11: Parameter estimates for the model, statehood.

Respondents' statehood 95% Confidence Interval for Exp(B)

(The reference category is “studying”) Sig. Exp(B) Lower Bound Upper Bound
Layabout Age .391 1.190 .799 1.772
[Sex=.0] .047 .346* .121 .985
[Strand=.0] .221 4.257 .419 43.281
[Strand=1.0] .336 1.626 .604 4.379
[Strand=2.0] .732 .685 .078 5.983
[Strand=3.0] .996 5.397E-8 .000 .c
[MFI =1.00] . 77816577 77816577 77816577
[MFI =2.00] 1.00 .727 .000 .c
[MFI =3.00] 1.00 .471 .000 .c
Entrepreneur Age .305 1.403 .735 2.679
[Sex=.0] .557 1.778 .261 12.125
[Strand=.0] .421 .334 .023 4.846
[Strand=1.0] .995 1.569E-8 .000 .c
[Strand=2.0] .997 2.558E-8 .000 .c
[Strand=3.0] .279 .243 .019 3.159
[MFI =1.00] .000 4437899** 289799 67960707
[MFI =2.00] .000 72119571** 9315667 558331719
[MFI =3.00] . 107021205 107021205 107021205
Employed Age .570 1.136 .731 1.766
[Sex=.0] .657 1.233 .489 3.110
[Strand=.0] .801 .750 .079 7.077
[Strand=1.0] .479 .671 .222 2.027
[Strand=2.0] .299 .323 .038 2.725
[Strand=3.0] .686 .707 .131 3.809
[MFI =1.00] .595 1.780 .213 14.890
[MFI =2.00] .889 1.172 .125 10.945
[MFI =3.00] .998 1.521E-8 .000 .c

*Significant

**Highly significant

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

The results of the study revealed that graduates were of the right age in their education level had they not stop
studying. The number of female graduates is leveled with the male and it shows gender fairness in the locality of
the study. Highest number of graduates were from TVL and GAS while the least were from ABM and such

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implies that males are more likely to take TVL rather than ABM, HUMSS and GAS than females. Further, older
students are more likely to take TVL than academic track and poor students tend to enroll in TVL rather than
ABM or STEM strand. This implies that students consider the factors after graduation in choosing their strands
in senior high school. The graduates regarded pursuing higher education as an avenue to further improve their
skills acquired in senior high school and only little of the graduates take on entrepreneurial activities. This
suggests that students still prioritize earning degree units in higher education. The results proved that the
absorption rate of ASCOT is high, but only half of these studying graduates are taking degrees aligned to their
SHS strand. Male respondents were likely to be layabouts than studying while lower income respondents were
likely to venture into entrepreneurship than studying after senior high school as compared to those in the
middle-income class. It is recommended that offering and support for TVL courses is strengthened since
students flock this track in view of employable skills. Career guidance programs specially in junior high schools
should help students decide properly on which senior high school strand to take that will prepare them for their
desired college degrees. Conduct of information dissemination on raising awareness to break the stigma that
TVL courses are flocked by males and low-income students and academic strands are for female and the
middle-income students is also recommended. Poverty in Aurora, being the foremost reason for not going to
school, must be addressed aggressively by providing employment opportunities and business stimulus.
Entrepreneurial trainings are also recommended to help senior high school graduates earn more. While a high
absorption rate is achieved by ASCOT, it would also be good to learn why students did not pursue their college
degrees in the same institution to attract more enrollees in the future. Strengthening the partnership with
agencies for work immersion is also recommended to provide more avenues for graduates to engage in
employment simulations. Future tracer studies are recommended to determine how the senior high school
program is performing based on its promised exits: entrepreneurship, employment and college.

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