Text mining as a method for examining the alignment between educational outcomes and the workforce needs

Introduction: Job descriptions outline competencies employers consider requisite for success and can be used to inform curriculum design. This paper demonstrates the use of text mining to determine the extent to which key educational outcomes align with job descriptions. Methods: Eighty pharmacist job descriptions containing a total of 12,064 words were text mined using the “bag of words” method. Results: A majority of the 20 most frequent job description words were also present in the pharmacy accreditation standards and American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy entrustable professional activity statements. However, several top 20 words were not, including customer, dispense, department and company. Chi-squared tests revealed text differences between community and health-system pharmacy, including patient, manage, information, and customer, which may have implications for pharmacy schools preparing students for various practice settings. Conclusion: The methodology described here provides a feasible and efficient approach to analyzing current workforce expectations and mapping them to educational outcomes.