The role of heterogeneity of technical skills training on the perceived employability of agricultural s tudents

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, University Of Zabol, Sistan, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

10.22092/jaear.2024.364375.1987

Abstract

According to the literature, the investigation of the role of technical skills in the perceived employability of agricultural students has been neglected by researchers. according to this, the main purpose of this research was to investigate the role of technical skills on the perceived employability of agricultural students.The statistical population of this applied research consists of fourth-year undergraduate agricultural students in the public universities of Iran in the academic year 2021-2022. The sample size was selected using the inverse square root method and multi-stage sampling method (n=384).The research instrument was a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, whose content validity was approved by a panel of experts, as well as calculating the factor loading and the divergent validity and discriminant validity and reliability tests through the calculation of ordinal theta and composite reliability (θ>0.7). Structural equation modeling and finite Mixture algorithm (FIMIX-PLS) were used in data analysis. The results showed that technical skills have a statistically significant relationship with the perceived employability of agricultural students. Also, By discovering the classes of intangible heterogeneity in the context of the research data, it was determined that the power of explaining the perceived employability of agricultural students by technical skills is very low for 79.2% of the studied students and very high for 20.8% of them. The analysis showed that the two groups differ from each other based on interest in the field of study. The obtained results can be used in planning for the movement of agricultural higher education institutions towards training employable students.

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