Toward a Stakeholder-Focused Curriculum: Examining Specific University Program Offerings against Competencies Provided by the U.S. Department of Labor
Providing students with an education that employers view as relevant and valuable is an ever-increasing challenge for universities. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework that university professors can use to examine their own program offerings against competencies deemed important by the U.S. Department of Labor. This paper focuses on specific competencies for success in technical sales. Faculty and employers are surveyed, and results indicate a high level of congruence between their opinions. However, some important differences did emerge between the two groups. These results are presented and discussed, along with the implementation of results to redevelop program curriculum.