New Office Technology: A Study on Curriculum Design

A study on new office technology and the consequences for curriculum design are described. In a preparatory study, information was collected about trends in the field of office automation, the actual and the desired job profiles of office personnel and the existing curricula. The aim of these activities was to have an empirical base for designing the curriculum. As expected, several discrepancies existed between the information obtained and the desired conditions of the ideal situation,which made it necessary to evaluate the findings of the preparatory study. This was done by a curriculum conference, a new approach to design curricula in groups, which has the characteristics of a carefully prepared workshop. At this conference, the design of the curriculum was validated and confirmed. The design of the curriculum embraces module descriptors for several components of office automation. The curriculum conference was evaluated and appeared to be a promising method to design job‐related curricula.