Preparing Computing Graduates for the Workplace: An Assessment of Relevance of Curricula to Industry

This chapter documents research which investigated how relevant the content of the Computing courses offered within undergraduate programs of the Computing Department at the National University of Samoa (NUS) were to meet the needs of the industry and the workforce. The study, which was conducted in 2018–2019, surveyed 16 institutions and 20 graduates from the Computing programs. Findings from the survey indicated that the current course offerings within the Computing Department are to a large extent relevant to the needs of the industry and the workplace. Most of the recommendations from the current survey were similar to those in the 2008 and 2013 survey and had already been incorporated into the current curriculum. The main recommendations for improving the curriculum are an improved emphasis on operating systems, cybersecurity, strategic planning, and problem-solving skills and introduction of other database platforms such as Oracle as well as more web-based languages. Recommendations for improvement of the survey are (i) increasing the scope to include an evaluation of the postgraduate diploma, (ii) the inclusion in future surveys of questions on soft skills, and (iii) specific consideration of the graduate profile and learning outcomes.