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Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, no automated solution is available for students who want to plan their desired degree path and maximize the skills required by desired or target job(s). In this paper, we consider the <jats:italic>Degree Planning Problem<\/jats:italic> (DPP), which aims at computing degree plans composed of university subjects for students during the completion of an undergraduate degree. Specifically, we aim to obtain the best set of skills matching the requirements of students\u2019 preferred job(s). To achieve this objective, we propose a flexible and scalable approach that solves the DPP in real-time by means of a non-trivial formalization as an optimization problem that can be solved with standard solvers. Finally, we employ real data from our University\u2019s Bachelor in Information and Communications Technology to show, through several use cases, that our approach can be a valuable decision-support tool for students and curriculum designers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s10479-025-06678-6","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,2]],"date-time":"2025-06-02T07:16:56Z","timestamp":1748848616000},"page":"2095-2128","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Computing job-tailored degree plans towards the acquisition of professional skills"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"351","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4981-8260","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roger X.","family":"Lera-Leri","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1658-6125","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filippo","family":"Bistaffa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2540-6002","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tomas","family":"Trescak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2940-6886","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan A.","family":"Rodr\u00edguez-Aguilar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"6678_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1007\/s10107-002-0339-5","volume":"95","author":"F Alizadeh","year":"2001","unstructured":"Alizadeh, F., & Goldfarb, D. 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