How the University of Virginia used 1Mentor Curricular Analytics to build a market-aligned Master's in Change Management

Designing for a shifting market

UVA SCPS had a clear vision for the new Master’s in Change Management - prepare professionals to thrive in roles that lead enterprise-wide change, guide teams through transformation, and deliver measurable organisational impact. Translating this vision into the curriculum required a clear understanding of how it aligns with job market needs:

• What roles can be impacted by this program?
• What occupations best represent the program’s graduate profile objectives?
• What skills are most in demand within those occupations?
• How can we group the skills into actionable learning outcomes and learning objectives for the curriculum to cover?

1Mentor’s Curricular Analytics provides structured data results to ensure the program addresses employer needs and prepares students for professional relevance.

From graduate profile to industry-aligned curriculum

The foundation for 1Mentor’s Curricular Analytics is the program’s graduate profile, which reflects the vision and strategy of SCPS stakeholders when designing this Master’s in Change Management. This is the unique vision the institution wants for this program, which will serve as a distinctive characteristic relative to other programs.  

Once the graduate profile is defined, the 1Mentor team analysed job market data - composed of 500 million job postings - to identify roles relevant to the field of change management. The set of recommended occupations for this program considered volume of job postings in the market, as well as growth trends, allowing SCPS to determine expected career objectives for the program, and prioritise their importance to the graduate profile, based on real job market data.

The subsequent in-depth analysis produced:

• A consolidated list of in-demand skills necessary for the program
• Areas of Knowledge formed from grouping related skills and categorising them
• Proposed learning objectives and proficiency levels for each Area of Knowledge

This structure allowed SCPS to see the direct line from vision, to occupations, to job market, to skills, to the curriculum language of learning objectives and learning outcomes.

Insights that sparked curriculum decisions

Through close collaboration, the Curricular Analytics Report provided was met with strong enthusiasm from the UVA team.

Key findings:

• The inclusion of Project Manager as a relevant occupation resonated deeply. As one stakeholder noted, “every change is implemented through a project,” reinforcing the program’s real-world applicability.
• Emerging domains like digital transformation and sustainability opened new pathways for elective courses or concentration areas. Even though these weren’t core themes now, stakeholders recogniszed their relevance for students who may want to pursue that lens.
• The inclusion of learning outcomes for the different Areas of Knowledge helped validate the design direction UVA was exploring. One stakeholder remarked that the report was “affirming of the broad-level outcomes we are pursuing… it’s really helpful to drive conversations and proof of our initial drafts.”
• Though the program’s core courses were mostly defined, the report created space for refinement, identifying Areas of Knowledge that hadn’t yet been considered and offering a roadmap for deeper alignment with market needs.

Program launch strategic value

While this Curricular Analytics Report was developed to validate the program’s current design approach, UVA SCPS stakeholders quickly saw broader applications. They identified key moments where 1Mentor’s Curricular Analytics could support the entire academic program lifecycle:

1. Program discovery: Use job market analysis to identify unmet needs and emerging opportunities for new programs.
2. Audience definition: Identify the roles that can be served with the new program by aligning occupations with upskilling pathways.
3. Accreditation support: Support submissions to accrediting bodies (like SCHEV) by demonstrating job relevance, public value, and workforce alignment.
4. Curriculum design: Translate suggested Areas of Knowledge and learning outcomes into course, electives, and syllabi.
5. Program positioning & differentiation: Use job-backed data to tell a compelling story to prospective students and employers about the program’s relevance and outcomes.
6. Continuous improvement: Giving professors access to job market insights so they can continuously evaluate and update their courses to match the demands of the job market.

Building the future of higher ed with Curricular Analytics

The collaboration between UVA SCPS and 1Mentor is a powerful example of how job market data can support curricular development. By confirming the relevance of an emerging degree in a rapidly changing employment landscape, the Curricular Analytics Report enabled stakeholders to make informed, strategic decisions that will shape future professional learning pathways.

As institutions face growing pressure to deliver programs that are relevant, responsive, and outcome-driven, 1Mentor’s Curricular Analytics offers a clear path forward to empower faculty and program directors. From ideation to implementation, from internal validation to external accreditation, this approach is redefining how academic programs are built.