On the design of elective courses in rf and communications according to the needs of industry

Abstract

Industry expectations for graduates in RF and Communication engineering become important issue in today's competitive job market. Thought in RF and Communication engineering education in the universities in Turkey, there is a gap between the contents of elective courses and industry expectations. This may cause a failure for graduates when they meet real working environment. Study as presented in this article may fill these gaps between the candidate engineers' skills and industry needs. According to industry requirements, senior level elective courses in RF and Communications will be re-designed. In this context, technical and non-technical skills in the national job market for the communication engineers are collected and a survey conducted to the graduates for weighting the skills according to their experiences at work. Then, a priority list, which is comprised by weighted skills in industry requirements, is prepared and presented to students as a questionnaire at the beginning of the semester. This questionnaire is made to assess students' abilities relative to industry requirements, in other words, awareness of the students are determined before taking the elective courses. The result of the study is discussed and it is indicated that students are lack of required skills. By analysing results of this study, improvements in the content of the courses could be started. This study may be useful to produce qualified communication engineers at Atilim University as required by the industry.