Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Research

Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Research

Assessing occupational empowerment of agricultural graduates and strategies to improve it from the viewpoint of graduate students in Zanjan University

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Seyyede Shirin Golbaz 1
Jafar Yaghoubi 2
1 MSc. Student, Agricultural Extension and Education, University of Zanjan, Iran
2 Associate Professor, Rural Extension, Connection and Development, University of Zanjan, Iran
10.22059/ijaedr.2015.54897
Abstract
Identifying the skills required in the labor market for graduates and strengthening them will have major role in increasing their access to employment opportunities. The purpose of this study was to measure occupational empowerment of agricultural graduates and mechanisms for strengthening it. Agricultural graduate students in Zanjan University formed the research population (n=101). The validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of academic experts. Pre-test and calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficients were used to measure the reliability (0.87 - 0.94). The results showed that the average score of occupational empowerment of respondents was 7.04 out of 20 indicating weakness of situation. Using exploratory factor analysis, strategies for improving occupational empowerment of agricultural graduates were summarized to seven factors including: increasing government support, increasing relationship between the university and Agricultural Ministry, making structural changes in education, vocational training during study, making changes in educational content, changing in accepting students practices and revising curriculum. 64% of the total variance of strategies for improving occupational empowerment was explained by these seven factors.
Keywords
agricultural graduates
employment
occupational empowerment
Strategy

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Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Research
Volume 46, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
Summer 2015
Pages 311-318