Underemployed Tourism Management graduates : a case study

Abstract

There were ten informants taken for the study, wherein each of them was given the chance to answer the formulated questions prepared for them. The study was conducted to determine what are the different reasons of tourism graduates why they chose to be employed unrelated to their finished course, also the difficulties they have encountered on their workplace, and lastly, their ways on how to overcome those said difficulties. Results of the study revealed that half of the informants are working as call center agents because they need an urgent job after they graduated so they immediately grabbed the opportunity of being hired in a BPO industry and for them it really offer a high salary that can sustain their financial needs. However, they had a hard time dealing with irate foreign customers and adjusting themselves working on a graveyard shift. By that, they overcome those challenges by being positive and optimistic on a daily basis. Findings of this qualitative research suggests that the University of Mindanao should also follow other schools that offer tourism course in terms of being active on all the activities and trainings that can expose tourism students in order for them to have more experience and be prepared in the real world.

Keywords: underemployment; tourism management graduates; University of Mindanao