Mind the Gap: Aligning Software Engineering Education and Industry in Namibia

Software Engineering (SE) professionals design, implement, and maintain modern business applications. From the software industry’s perspective, SE graduates must possess the necessary competencies required by industry. In this paper, we present results from a focus group arranged as a webinar conducted amongst SE industry supervisors, a graduate programmer, and academics from three computing departments in different universities in Namibia. Our results identified crucial SE skills expected by the SE industry in Namibia. Furthermore, our results highlighted the importance of enhancing university-industry collaboration in educating, preparing, and nurturing SE graduates with employable skills. We present our results from the focus group discussions, and based on the results, we suggest competencies that academia should consider incorporating in their curriculum development to ensure that SE graduates possess the necessary skills required in their careers.