Linking academic forestry education with employers' demands: a case study from Malaysia

University curricula, particularly forestry curricula, have been traditionally orientated to the employers' needs and the society's wants. Modern curriculum development requires a dialogue between universities and potential employers of graduates even more to keep abreast of diversity and change. To this end, the Malaysian-German Forestry Education Project at the School of International Tropical Forestry commissioned three surveys in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah to learn about employers demand in forestry and related fields. Apart from putting emphasis on sound state-of-the-art knowledge in core technical fields such as Forest Management and GIS/Remote Sensing, employers interviewed judged basic computer skills, soft skills and adequate practical training programmes as being equally important.