2008 - Marketing Educators' Association

file materials for easy retrieval, locate business
information, and place and answer telephone calls
that give and receive business information that is
complete and acceptable.
FINDINGS BASED ON PAST PERFORMANCE
Reportorial requirements submitted after the
completion of the OJT period showed that the
students were tasked to do the following and related
jobs: updating of records, filing of documents,
surveying for research, encoding, preparing
PowerPoint presentations for board meetings,
editing product leaflets, mass faxing, mass e-mailing
of exhibitors and visitors databases during trade
exhibits, and the like. As to how effective the
program was, a documentary analysis of the OJT
documents and the Graduates Tracer Study of 2007
were conducted to find out how the university’s
marketing graduates fared compared with the
graduates of the other business administration
programs after graduation. Tracer findings showed
marketing graduates to be highly employable due to
the fact their practicum companies hired them after
graduation. The study covered school years 2001 to
2006.
Accommodating the student, from the employer’s
end, does not entail much. Needless to say, a
practicumer lightens the workload of the office staff
under whose supervision the student is assigned.
Sad to say, clerical work is assigned on the premise
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that the practicumer is, and still is, a student with a
limited knowledge of practical applications of the
marketing concepts learned in the classrooms.
RECOMMENDATIONS
A marketing graduate is expected to perform tasks
related to the marketing aspects of a business when
he or she graduates. Corollary to that, the graduate
is expected to deliver the marketing principles in
actual practice. While performing office or clerical
work cannot be neglected as an indicator of skills
development, the marketing on-the-job training
should go beyond technical practice, except in
advertising and publicity activities where the artistic
ability of the students are honed. To properly
address students’ needs for preparation for actual
marketing work, the following are highly
recommended:
(1) Rigid screening of the company profile to ensure
effective industry linkage;
(2) Initial dialogue, exit interviews, and constant
monitoring of company-participants to the program
to ensure that marketing-related jobs are given to
the students;
(3) Accreditation of company-participants in the
program before approval of students’ requests to
commence the training;
(4) Strict compliance with reportorial requirements,
both for the students and for the companyparticipants.
References Available on Request.