Knowledge skills and abilities demanded of graduates in the new learning environment

Abstract

Changes in technology and employer demands require that we regularly survey our stakeholder communities to ensure the relevance and currency of what we are teaching, and the qualifications we offer to prepare our students for practice. At a presentation to an IT breakfast of the NZCS Auckland Branch in October 1998, the audience were surveyed in order to gauge how well we were doing in developing tomorrow's practitioners. Topics surveyed were: the relative importance of different technical skills required by employers, the key trends that we need to prepare graduates for, the impact of the Internet on skills required, the most urgent up skilling requirements of employees and the relative value of vendor vs. formal Polytechnic qualifications. The results of the survey are reported, the key findings analysed and some strategies are suggested which address the identified gaps.