Metodología para identificar fortalezas y debilidades en el currículo de Administración de Empresas del Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez

Abstract

This is an era full of technological changes and globalization that establishes new challenges for the way people learn and is trained, making learning part of a continuous process. During the last few years, educational institutions deal with the need for methodology development in order to align academic programs with work practices. This can be done through curricular revisions and assessing the impact of education in alumni work experiences. This research responds to that necessity, offering a methodology to determine strengths and weaknesses in the Business Administration curriculum at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. A tracking of Business Administration alumni graduated from 1983 to 2004 from the Mayagüez Campus was made as part of this investigation. It is based on alumniís graduated since 1983 because the Business Administration curriculum has not been updated since then. A profile of these alumniís was detailed and then compared with a profile of the business employee needed in the manufacturing industry in Puerto Rico. The main objective of this research was to determine if the education received by Business Administration students is consistent with job market requirements in terms of skills. The methodology employs an identification and localization of alumni from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. The information about alumniís academic and work experiences was collected throughout a survey. Manufacturing enterprises from the pharmacy, electronics, and medical equipment industry were also sampled in order to identify their skills requirements. Then a matching between the two profiles was made to see if there is any disparity. The results revealed that the Business Administration curriculum from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez do not gave to alumni, enough up to date Business Administration knowledge, project management skills, and ethics, in order to satisfy the requirements of the pharmacy and medical equipment industry. On the other hand, for the electronics industry there was a lack of interpersonal relationships.