Reducing the Gap between Software Engineering Curricula and Software Industry in Jordan

Samer Hanna, Hayat Jaber, Ayad Almasalmeh, Fawze Abu Jaber

Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Information Technology, Philadelphia University, Jerash, Jordan.
Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology, Philadelphia University, Jerash, Jordan.

DOI: 10.4236/jsea.2014.77056                

Abstract

Nowadays software is taking a very important role in almost all aspects of our daily lives which gave great importance to the study field of Software Engineering. However, most of the current Software Engineering graduates in Jordan lack the required knowledge and skills to join software industry because of many reasons. This research investigates these reasons by firstly analyzing more than 1000 software job listings in Jordanian and Gulf area e-recruitment services in order to discover the skills and knowledge areas that are mostly required by software industry in Jordan and the Gulf area, and secondly comparing these knowledge areas and skills with those provided by the Software Engineering curricula at the Jordanian Universities. The awareness of the Software Engineering students and academic staff of the concluded mostly required knowledge areas and skills is measured using two questionnaires. Recommendations to decrease the gap between Software Engineering academia and industry had also been taken from a sample of software companies’ manager using a third questionnaire. The results of this research revealed that many important skills such as Web applications development are very poorly covered by Software engineering curricula and that many Software engineering students and academic staffs are not aware about many of the mostly needed skills to join industry.

Keywords

Software Engineering, Software Industry, Knowledge Areas, Knowledge Gap, Required Skills to Join Industry

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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