Meeting employers' and students' expectations through the use of employer demand ontology in curriculum development

Abstract

It has become evident in recent times that curriculums do not sufficiently cover the expected employment skill needs of graduates to be job ready directly post obtaining their qualifications. In order to assure an appropriately trained and job ready graduate workforce, it is imperative that employer expectations are incorporated into curriculums offered to students who are hoping to be trained for professional advancement. Current data gathering methods of employer expectations are time, cost and labour intensive. Reduced capital and human resource inputs result in inaccurate data collection outcomes and inevitably miss-matched skill sets for graduates. The aim of this paper is to introduce employer demand ontology which is currently being developed. The ontology will enable employer demand expectations to be accurately and continuously identified through the use of artificial intelligence. Once identified, curriculum developers will be able to incorporate these applicable skill needs into specific curricula to ensure that graduates are work ready.