The Perceived Competence of Psychology Graduates on Transition to Industrial Work Setting

: This study investigates the perceived competence and the actual performance of Psychology Graduates from Pamantasan ng Cabuyao during Industrial On-the-job Training as their competence is measured in different areas of Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. That utilizes a quantitative approach, self-validated questionnaires were administered to measure the graduates' perceptions and supervisors' evaluations. The results of this study revealed that there is a significant difference in knowledge, skills, and abilities in terms of their perceived and actual competence, with mean scores indicating higher perceived competence than actual performance. Despite this gap, Psychology Graduates demonstrate competence crucial for various industries, suggesting potential success as HR professionals as said in a study (Ontok-Balah, 2023).

and students in learning delivery and acquisition, shaping the students, and providing a foundation of competence as future professionals.

II. METHODOLOGY A. Research Design
In this study, the research design that the researchers used is quantitative.It is the overall method that incorporates the different components of the study logically and cohesively; it also serves as the data collection, measurement, and analysis design to explain, predict, and control phenomena (Lechtenberg, 2020).The researchers used a quantitative correlational design to determine the difference between perceived competence and actual performance in the on-the-job training of Pamantasan ng Cabuyao Psychology Graduates in the Academic year 2019-2023.To know the significant difference between the two variables, the researchers' methods used the self-made validated questionnaires that were answered by the participants-that measured students' perceived competence and actual.The researchers coordinated with the On-the-Job training supervisors to determine the students' actual performance to obtain data that validated and correlated to the Perceived Competence of the Graduates.

B. Research Locale
The study was conducted in various areas in Laguna, particularly in the cities of Calamba, Cabuyao, and Sta.Rosa where the primary respondents of this study resided.The respondents of this study were Graduates of Pamantasan ng Cabuyao, located at Limcaoco St. Katapatan Homes, Banay-Banay, City of Cabuyao Laguna.To strengthen this study, the researchers also gathered data from the graduates' respective industrial setting companies located in the various cities of Laguna, Calamba City, Cabuyao City, Sta.Rosa City and Biñan City.

C. Population and Sampling
In this study, the researchers used a non-probability technique, a sampling that selected the sample using non-randomized techniques.Since a non-probability technique was used, purposive sampling was then utilized in this study.The purposive sampling technique, also called judgment sampling; through this way, researchers purposely selected participants who possessed and acquired the qualities required in the researcher's study.A non-random technique does not require several participants and underlying theories.With that, the researchers were the ones who determined what was known and looked for the respondents who willingly participated and provided information through possessing qualifications that were needed in the study (Iliyasu, R., &Etikan, I., 2021).
The respondent's qualifications for this study were Female or Male, with a Degree in Bachelor of Science in Psychology, took the internship program in 2023, and a Graduate of the University of Cabuyao from the academic year 2022-2023.

D. Research Participants
The respondents of the study are graduates of a four year tertiary education program, Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Cabuyao Academic Year 2022-2023, Batch 2023 alumni who experienced a combination of one-year traditional learning and Online Distance learning as their mode of learning.Also, as graduates of a tertiary program they learned new knowledge, skills and enhanced their abilities.Furthermore, the graduates' supervisor during their On-the-Job Training in their industrial setting are also respondents of this study

E. Research Instrumentation
A self-report Likert locale-scale questionnaire was used to assess and obtain the data needed for this study.The questionnaire was designed for the Psychology Graduate students to measure and collect information on perceived competence regarding their skills, knowledge, and Abilities.The study aimed to determine the correlation between perceived competency and the student's actual performance in their on-the-job training.Thereby, in finding the Graduate's actual performance, apart from a designed questionnaire given to the Graduates, the researchers also prepared the same set of questions for the Company supervisors who witnessed, observed, and judged the competence performed by Pamantasan ng Cabuyao Graduates during the industrial internship.This was the researcher's way of validating the competence perceived by the Graduates to themselves and correlating with one another.
The researchers' Likert-scale questionnaire consists of three categories, which are skills, knowledge, and ability.Under the category of knowledge, there are problem-solving, conflict management, and strategic thinking.In the skills category, there are interpersonal skills, oral and written communication skills, human capital management, and developing others.On the other hand, ability category consists of resilience, flexibility, ad technical credibility.Each topic has a set of questions that the participants responded to measure their perceived competence, and questions answered by choosing between the scales of agreement to disagreement level of the students.
Moreover, the instrument's internal consistency is assessed using Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient to guarantee the instrument's reliability in this study.On the other hand, this study used construct validity to assess if the instrument used measures the intended construct that needed measurement.The instrument's validity ensures that the findings obtained from the study are valid.The validation process is followed after the construction of questionnaires given to the respondent containing items associated with their perceived competence.After constructing the questionnaire, the instrument was validated by four professional validators with immense industry knowledge and expertise.

F. Data Gathering Procedure
In this study, the researchers made an Informed Consent Form for the subjects of the study, which are the Psychology Graduates batch 2023 and their respective companies during on-the-job training.The researchers also prepared a letter of request to Pamantasan ng Cabuyao, the Psychology Department Head that permits the researchers to access the documents of the graduates on the job training data including the students' names, company information, and contact person.
Data gathering procedure of this study ran for approximately 3 months.The researchers requested and obtained the list of Graduates and their respective Company during their Industrial Internship from the College of Arts and Sciences Department.They successfully able to connect with some of the Graduates by constantly messaging them through their social media accounts.However, regardless of persistent pleading there were numbers of graduates that did not able to respond due to loss of contact and busy work schedules.Alongside with this, The researchers struggled in acquiring data from companies due to delayed release of coded letters that hold the researchers from reaching out the target companies until second week of November.This circumstance hurdled the researchers to connect with various companies because of upcoming Christmas season thus difficult for them to accommodate the request.After constant number of emails, the researchers receive no replies.Thereby to pursue this study, the researchers came to visit each company to personally hand the letter and discuss the matter of request.Upon requesting the needed data, it consumed plenty of time for the researchers to retrieve the data that they requested to the companies.
On the other hand, data gathering from the company was also conducted through online platforms.However, since some companies cannot be contacted online, the researchers opted to come to their offices personally and requested them to be part of the study.
The researchers provided a brief percussion of the Data Policy Act and a set of instructions so that the respondents could answer the questionnaires honestly and fully know their responsibility as the subject of the study.Furthermore, the study used a purposive sampling method as it is the most appropriate method of sampling to use because the researchers set a qualification to the respondent of the study (Iliyasu &Etikan, 2021).
After answering the questionnaire, the researchers collected and tallied the data for interpretation and assessed if there was a correlation between the results of the questionnaires.The researchers also asked the statistician for help to determine the appropriate statistical tools used in interpreting the data.Then after that, the researcher come up with conclusions and recommendations.

G. Ethical Consideration
Participation in this study was voluntary.Before the respondents agreed to participate in this study, they were given a consent form containing the details regarding the study.And they were entitled to withdraw anytime during the process.
All the information given in this study was confidential and protected.The researchers kept the data and information in a computer file safely.Moreover, all the data and information gathered are destroyed and deleted after the research.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter comprised with results and discussion gathered during the data gathering and the outcome of the studies.The findings of this study conclude that the Pamantasan ng Cabuyao Psychology Graduates were confidently competent in their knowledge, skills, and abilities during their on-the-job training and believed that they executed their competence appropriately aligned to the demands of the industry.Furthermore, data obtained from company supervisors of psychology graduates during their internship showed them to be competent as part of the human resource team.The graduates acquired various competencies and it manifest on their on-the-job training.

Table 1. Summary of results Perceived Competence in terms of Knowledge. Table 2. Summary Results of Actual Competence in terms of Knowledge
Table 1 and Table 2 show the items that received the highest rate on the perceived and actual competence of the graduates in the category of knowledge.
They showed high competence in their knowledge on problem-solving.It shows that they are equipped to assess challenges and make a rational judgment to solve the problem.In the same way, the graduates are also knowledgeable in conflict management as they are capable of analyzing and resolving conflicts within the workplace and they maintain good relationships with other employees.In addition, the result shows that the graduates are highly competent in terms of knowledge in strategic thinking.It indicates that the graduates critically analyze challenging situations and come up with a plan in order to resolve it.

Table 3. Summary of results Perceived Competence in terms of Skills Table 4. Summary Results of Actual Competence in terms of Skills
Table 3 and 4 shows the item that received the highest rate on the perceived and actual competence of the graduates in the category of skills.The graduates have high competence in interpersonal skills as they can collaborate and work in teams.They also showed proficiency in oral and written communication as the graduates can communicate well in oral and written form within the workplace.Having these skills puts the graduates ahead of their competitors and increases their employability in the industry.As the result was shown in their skills in human capital management and skill in developing others that they are highly competent, the graduates are capable of contributing to the development of the organization and other people within the workplace.Hence, not only are they developing but also the organization they worked on, and other people also developed because of their skills.This is an important competence to be an effective human resource.Therefore, it is a great indicator that the graduates can be effective human resources since they are reported to be competent in this area of skills.

Table 5. Summary of results Perceived Competence in terms of Abilities Table 6. Summary Results of Actual Competence in terms of Abilities
Table 5 and 6 shows the items that received the highest rate on the perceived and actual competence of the graduates in the category of abilities.The graduates have high resiliency since they have a positive outlook on every challenge they encounter and can manage to be calm and optimistic when difficult situations arise.They also have a high rate of flexibility as they quickly adapt to different changes in the workplace and can modify their approach to meet the needs within the workplace.On the other hand, they are competent with their ability in technical credibility because they have knowledge of technical information within the work and can suggest alternatives to resolve issues.However, there is still room for improvement to reach the higher ability to perform well in this area.

Table 7. Significant Difference of the Graduates Perceived Competence and Actual Competence in terms of KSA
The result shows that there is a significant difference between the actual and perceived competence of the graduates in terms of their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
In the area of knowledge, the average score was 3.42 on Perceived Competence and 3.10 on Actual Performance.It also provided the computed Critical level of 1.98 and a significant figure of 0.00 (2-tailed) with a total population of 57 Graduates and 57 responses from the companies.The data presented shows that the students' Perceived Competence in the area of knowledge is higher than their Actual Performance.Thereby, this statistical analysis rejected the null hypothesis as it shows a significant difference between the two variables.
There is a significant difference between the graduate's perceived competence and actual performance in terms of skill, with a mean score of 3.38 on Perceived Competence and 2.98 on Actual Performance.It also provided the computed Critical level of 1.93 and a significant figure of 0.00 (2-tailed) with a total population of 57 Graduates and 57 responses from the companies.The data presented shows that the students' Perceived Competence in the area of skill is higher than their Actual Performance.Thereby, this statistical analysis rejected the null hypothesis as it shows a significant difference between the two given variables.
Furthermore, there is a significant difference between graduates' perceived competence and actual performance in terms of ability, with a mean score of 3.44 on Perceived Competence and 3.01 on Actual Performance.It also provided the computed Critical level of 1.98 and a significant figure of 0.00 (2-tailed) with a total population of 57 Graduates and 57 responses from the companies.The data presented shows that the students' Perceived Competence in the area of ability is higher than their Actual Performance.This statistical analysis rejected the null hypothesis as it shows a significant difference between the two given variables.

IV. DISCUSSION
As researchers viewed and analyzed the overall data of this study, the researchers concluded that Psychology Graduates are competent, particularly when it comes to Knowledge, skills, and Abilities required by Industries, and reflected their possible success as human resource professionals.Provided that the Graduated psychology students perceived themselves as highly competent during the Industrial internship and were validated as competent by their company supervisors, the outcome of this study expounded and corresponded with the idea of Self-efficacy theory that adolescents with high self-efficacy do better academically, and self-efficacious adults have greater efficacy at work (Maddux, 2023).Also, the theory's concept explained that the development of their competence is drawn from their learning experiences as the academic effectiveness contributes to the high competence of the graduates.
Furthermore, the results of this study concluded that the graduates received an adequate learning and training during their academic years as it was manifested having a positive outcome.This is anchored as well as contributes to the context of human capital theory as it contends that the collection of skills, abilities, and knowledge (KSA) acquired through experience, education, and training," is which individuals utilize in carrying out their jobs effectively (Aliu &Aigbavboa, 2019).It merely indicates that competence executed by the Graduates in industrial field is brought by their academic experience and also reflects to the effectivity of learning methods provided to them in the foundation of their professional comeptence particularly in indistrial setting.
Moreover, in consideration to professional world, it was clearly identified in this study that the view of both graduates and their supervisors meet the demands required by industrial setting through leadearship competencies and specified variables that is necessary to the organization to work harmonously.This concept was emphasize by the context concluded by human relations theory as it highlight the relevance of leadership competence and leadership approaches in having effective and efficient organization with righteous treatment to employees.Furthermore, Omolawal (2023) contends that effective human resource management is founded on understanding the power and influence of leadership on employees to get the most out of them.
Furthermore, data showed a significant difference between the perceived and actual competence, which led to the rejection of the null hypothesis of this study.This expounds the minimal gap between the perspectives of the graduates and the company, indicating that psychology interns have adequate competency, yet they have some areas of knowledge, skill, and ability that they have to work on in an industrial setting.