PERFORMANCE-CENTERED APPROACH FOR ADAPTIVE CURRICULUM FOR EMPLOYMENT NEEDS

According to Cedefop’s latest forecast of the skills demand and supply in Europe , around seven million more jobs will be generated by 2020. Most new jobs projected to be around 8.5 million, will be in knowledge- and skill-intensive occupations, such as high level managerial and technical jobs. The projections suggest that the demand for skills (as measured by formal qualifications) is likely to continue rising. The nature of industrial and technological change is increasing the demand for the highly- and medium-qualified groups.

The aim of this paper is to present the development of adaptive to business and employment needs curriculum on master degree level, applying performance support systems concept and principles for education in performance-centered content management learning system, in the sector ‘Computer, Electronic and Optical Products’.
Objectives of the work:
• Identification of new demands for qualifications – identification of current skills needs and new requirements for competences in fibre-optic technology, control systems, electronic and software engineering. Jobs skills set-up design.
• Development of qualification profiles – knowledge, skills and competences in learning outcomes, curriculum framework
• Development of Performance-centered Adaptive Curriculum (PAC) for qualification
• Testing Performance-centered Adaptive Curriculum for qualification
• Evaluation of the skills, knowledge and competences – answer the question: ‘Right skills for the right job?’

The innovation presented in this work is in three main aspects: in the practice-based curriculum development, in the performance-centered methodology using for curriculum support and in the adaptation of the curriculum to the business and employment needs.
Practice-based curriculum development emphases on selection of content from a specific job role, curriculum structure around concepts, process as content and graduate outcomes instead of subject-based outcomes. The curriculum development requires analysis of a range of real situations on the job place in which the student will be expected to perform.