Needs Assessment of Junior High School Students in Contact Center Services: Basis for Competency-Based Learning Materials

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The call to equip learners with skills for future employment resulted to the integration of TESDA courses in Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) for Junior High School, including Contact Center Services (CCS) NC II. Since its implementation in 2012, no assessment of students' competence has been conducted to measure the alignment of learning outcomes to industry standards. This study examined the competence of students in CCS, in order to design learning materials for Junior High School, which are anchored on TESDA Training Regulations.

METHODS

To attain this purpose, a descriptive research design using a self-assessment questionnaire based on TESDA Training Regulations was utilized to measure the competence of the students. The respondents of the study were 182 Grade 10 students taking CCS NC II as their specialization in TLE. For analysis of data, mean was used to determine the level of competency of students in CCS.

RESULTS

From the results of the study, students have varying levels of competency in Contact Center Services NC II. Students are assessed as "Competent" in Basic Competencies; however, they are still "developing" their skills in "Participate in workplace communication", which requires them to know and perform different modes of communication and routine work duties. In terms of Common Competencies, students are both "developing" and "competent". "Apply quality standards" was assessed as"developing", which involves skills in assessing their own work, the quality of received materials, and quality improvement. The second Common Competency, on the other hand, is assessed as "competent", since the CCS CG and LM for Grade 9 include "Performing basic computer operations and internet navigation" as one of the competencies. The core of all competencies in CCS NC II was assessed as "developing", which includes communication, customer service, and engaging customers.

DISCUSSIONS

Students are expected to perform specific competencies which must be given emphasis in the learning materials in a logical and systematic way. A proposed design for competency-based learning materials in Contact Center Services Exploratory (Grade 8) and Specialization (Grade 9 and 10) were developed by the researchers in order to address the needs of the learners. The materials were grounded on the industry requirements for contact center practitioners, thus increasing the employability of graduates.