This paper reports on how consultation with IT industry representatives will lead to the improvement of degree courses in database design and development. The Unitec Bachelor of Computing Systems (BCS) programme, delivered by the School of Computing and Information Technology (SoCIT), currently contains three database courses. Concern has been raised, by SoCIT staff, that options for level 7 studies in the area of database design and development are limited. There is also concern that students are exiting the BCS programme without sufficient knowledge in this area to secure employment in an IT role. The learning and skills outcomes of the current BCS database courses are analysed and evaluated on their relevancy to the current practises in industry. Industry research has been conducted by the author in order to determine the level of skills required to gain employment in a database development role. This paper will detail the findings of this research. It will go on to make specific recommendations about how the BCS programme can be restructured and/or augmented to better reflect the needs of the IT industry. In examining and evaluating the current database courses delivered at Unitec, this paper is in line with the computing education theme of the conference.