Undergraduates' Computer Competency Improvement towards Strategic Plan Development.

Abstract

The major mission of Information Technology (IT) Department was developing the desirable characteristics for IT students in order to meet the employers' requirements. This research aimed to investigate employees' significant IT competency that matched the employers' requirement. Fifteen proposed IT competency were evaluated by five companies in the field of IT in order to obtain the appropriate and desirable IT employees. Utility of competency topics were derived from ranking by conjoint analysis. These utilities were transformed to paired comparison matrix of significant IT competency. In addition, lecturers in the Department of Computer, Faculty of Science and Technology, RUS suggested the alternative activities which might increase undergraduates' IT competency. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to explore utility of each proposed activities. Strategic IT competency plan was derived from utility important AHP result. The key factor of success of proposed computer competency improvement projects were defined based on employer ranking's results.