CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE FOCUS OF INDUSTRY CHALLENGES

For being competitive Albanian wood processing industry had to invest in technology as well as in training and information. The lack of information regarding to technology and marketing was a constant issue for wood processing companies, and therefore the Faculty of Forestry Sciences played an important role for diffusing the best technology and methodology. In this framework in the beginning of 2000 teaching curricula were improved implementing new subjects, “Control of Quality” and “Management of Quality”, as well as a general reconstruction of professional subjects, conducting and managing the education of future engineers with principles of standardization and certification systems according to requests of job market.
A state of art study was carried out from October to December 2011 to analyze the correlation between teaching curricula development and hiring level of Forestry Faculty graduated students, as well as to secure new empirical evidence that can contribute on teaching issues. The study was focused in identifiable wood processing companies with more than 10 employers using questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires and interviews were structured based on the objectives of the study.
The statistical analysis showed there was a satisfactory correlation between hiring level and up dated curricula regarding to ISO 2000-9001 certified companies, which all belonged to furniture manufacturing, whereas for sawn wood companies this correlation was too weak, but correlation between products quality and quality of raw material was strong.
As conclusion we might say that impact of teaching curricula reformation was not for Albanian industry of wood material manufacturing (sawn timber industry) as strong as for product manufacturing (furniture industry). This, because of respective outputs and nature of markets where operate these industries.