Ict curricula Guidelines (2nd draft)

7.1 Curriculum Structure

In general, no curriculum can prepare students for activities at expert level in all skill profiles. However, every ICT curriculum should provide a common ICT platform at basic level, enabling the graduates to work in teams on common projects and to communicate in common ICT language even if they have specialised in different ICT sectors. A deeper qualification should be provided for a group of skills profiles which are rather similar and have a common set of knowledge and skills requirements. The in-depth qualification should normally meet the requirements of one selected generic skills profile and contain the knowledge and skills related to that profile.
Consequently the career space consortium suggests that any ICT curriculum should consist of hierarchically organised modules:

● sets of core modules,

● sets of area-specific core modules

● sets of optional (elective) modules.

In the area of technical knowledge:

► The core modules represent the Scientific and Technology Base giving the fundamentals and basis for all ICT skills profiles (see par. 4.3). They represent also the slow changing knowledge. A selection from these modules is recommended to be scheduled during the first year of study.

► The area specific core modules represent the Technological and Engineering base which are specific for the technological area of the group of core skill profiles targeted and they represent the faster changing knowledge. It is suggested that they be scheduled in the second or later years of study.
► The elective modules reflect the fastest changing knowledge with a period of ageing of this knowledge of 3-5 years. They reflect the novel technological and engineering knowledge. These modules are used to provide a specialised and in-depth approach and to equalise the differences, thus giving a flexibility and possibility to specialise in certain areas.

► The personal and business skills shall be developed during the entire study, starting in the first semester. Primarily they should be integrated into the teaching of technical subjects. Where additional modules are necessary, they should follow the same structure as the technical knowledge area.

This structure can be applied for curricula leading to both first and second cycle degree taking into account that all the modules in a second cycle degree program should be designed at an advanced level.

A generic structure of a model curriculum is presented in Figure 7.