Reihaneh Shagholi; Erfan Alimirzaei
Abstract
The main purpose of the current practical research which conducted based on a mixed research paradigm, was identifying the main educational requirements of human resources in the agricultural sector in order to improve designing both formal and informal agricultural education programs, through a demand-driven ...
Read More
The main purpose of the current practical research which conducted based on a mixed research paradigm, was identifying the main educational requirements of human resources in the agricultural sector in order to improve designing both formal and informal agricultural education programs, through a demand-driven approach. Accordingly, 25 experts from the executive, academic and guild unions in the field of labor market and agricultural occupations were purposefully selected by snowball sampling method and studied until achieving saturation threshold. Data were collected through semi-structured qualitative interviews using a researcher-made protocol. Furthermore, the qualitative data were analyzed applying the Grounded Theory methodology by the Strauss method. Lawshe Content Validity Ratio was used to assess the consensus among experts and to evaluate the validity of qualitative findings. According to the findings, the educational needs of human resources were classified into four basic categories of professional requirements namely cognitive competencies consisting of 11 sub-categories with the priority of know how; skills competencies include 12 sub-categories with the priority of technical-specialized skills; attitudinal competencies include 7 sub-categories with the priority of professional commitment; and finally, personal characteristics consisting of 14 sub-categories with the priority of innovation. The aforementioned competency categories and the related priorities can be considered and used in order to synchronize the outputs of formal and informal agricultural education system with the actual needs of the working world as much as possible, through a systematic and holistic approach in content selection processes of agricultural education programs.
