Abstract:

In higher education, the learning outcomes of the curriculum content must be compatible with the skills needed on the labor market, so that professional companies offer graduates the best opportunities for employment. Otherwise, the educational program will lose in the competition with other universities and thus it does not attract new students and loses scientific repetition. Therefore, many universities use graduate tracking studies (GTS) as an important tool to improve quality assurance (QA) and maintain curriculum relevance. (GTS) also offers targeted incentives to graduates to improve the marketability of degree programs. GTS can also identify gaps between the skills needed in the labor market and the academic learning outcomes of the curriculum content.

The main objective of this article is to find out to what extent the learning outcomes of the Urban and Regional Planning (URP) program of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning correspond to the skills needed in the labor market, studying the opinions of Program graduates about themselves, their own work experience in graduate studies and after working in the labor market. This will help improve the skills of the graduates.

To achieve the objectives of the research, the methodology goes through 5 steps: First, with the help of an intensive literature review, the factors that influence the relation between the learning outcomes of the curriculum content and the skills needed in the labor market are identified. Second, designing a Questionnaire structure to explore KAU-KSA graduate trace studies (GTS) about the most critical factors affecting the graduate's skills.

Third, investigating the graduates' point of view by conducting the questionnaire. The fourth is results analysis. Fifth, to come up with a set of recommendations that could improve graduates’ skills in the URP-AP-KAU. A field study in the URP Department, Faculty of Architecture and Planning in KAU for the graduate trace was carried out to assess the Graduate's employment situation in the labor market. It examined the gap between the needed labor market skills and the academic skills of the learning outcomes of the curriculum content. The study lasted for two years. The results showed that there is a room to improve graduates' skills at KAU.

Keywords:

Keywords: learning outcomes, curriculum content, graduate track studies (GTS), graduate skills, labor market, and higher education.