Assessment of the Perceived Impact of Extension Activities and Services: A Basis for Extension Sustainability for the Civil Engineering Program in a State College in the Philippines

Abstract

Extension activities and services aim to provide necessary assistance to the community in addressing their needs. As one of the four-fold functions, higher education institutions are mandated to conduct programs that would help the community towards societal, economic, and environmental transformations. This study is an evaluation research of the perceived impact of the extension activities and services conducted by the civil engineering programs of the Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges, Philippines for 2016-2018. The extension activities and services are categorized into skills training, advocacy, and outreach programs. The civil engineering program faculty extensionists evaluated the extent of extension activities and service implementation. Data on the assessment of outcomes and impact were solicited from the beneficiary respondents for skills training, advocacy, and outreach programs. The social, economic, and environmental aspects were considered to determine the impacts of the extension services and activities. Results found that the extent of implementation was fully implemented. On the outcomes of skills training, indicators were agreed upon by the respondents, while advocacy and outreach programs were strongly agreed upon. Along with the impact of skills training, social and economic aspects were evaluated as strongly agree and agree, respectively. On the impact of advocacy and outreach programs, social and economic aspects were strongly agreed. Also, findings showed that the outcomes of skills training have no relationship to social and economic impacts. In contrast, advocacy and outreach programs have a relationship with the social and environmental impacts. Recommendations were proposed to enhance the civil engineering programs' extension services and activities further