In the rapidly evolving field of software engineering, the skills required of graduates entering the job market are constantly changing. Several studies have identified a gap between the skills taught in university curricula and those demanded by the software engineering industry. This chapter investigates the technical skill and expertise gap between higher education institutions (HEIs) and the UK software engineering industry by mapping job descriptions to the skills included in computer science degree programmes. A custom web scraping and text analysis tool, utilising fuzzy matching, was developed to extract and categorise skills from 300 job postings and undergraduate curricula from 30 UK universities. The analysis showed that the curricula place a strong emphasis on Programming Languages (18%) and Database Management (12.83%). In contrast, the industry s most frequently requested skill category is Software Design and Planning, which appears in approximately 88.68% of job descriptions, highlighting its critical importance. General Programming Language and System Structures also show strong demand, present in over 78.30% and 66.04% of postings, respectively. The mapping indicates that areas such as System Structures and Software Domains are significantly underrepresented in curricula, while Database Management and Compiler Design may be overemphasised. These insights can support HEIs in aligning their programmes with industry needs, supporting the preparation of graduates for dynamic careers in software engineering.
翻译:在快速发展的软件工程领域,毕业生进入就业市场所需的技能正在不断变化。多项研究已指出大学课程所传授的技能与软件工程行业所需的技能之间存在差距。本章通过将职位描述与计算机科学学位课程中的技能进行映射,调查了高等教育机构(HEIs)与英国软件工程行业之间的技术技能与专业知识差距。本文开发了一个利用模糊匹配的自定义网络爬取与文本分析工具,从300个职位公告和30所英国大学的本科课程中提取并分类技能。分析显示,课程对编程语言(18%)和数据库管理(12.83%)给予了高度重视。相比之下,行业最频繁要求的技能类别是软件设计与规划,这出现在约88.68%的职位描述中,凸显了其关键重要性。通用编程语言和系统结构也显示出强劲需求,分别出现在超过78.30%和66.04%的公告中。映射结果表明,诸如系统结构和软件领域等方向在课程中严重不足,而数据库管理和编译器设计可能被过度强调。这些见解可支持高等教育机构将其课程与行业需求对齐,有助于培养毕业生为软件工程领域的动态职业生涯做好准备。