Analysis of Barriers to Agricultural Graduate's Employment

The current study is a qualitative research in which a grounded theory has been used. To collect data an interview tool through in-depth interviews was used. A theoretical purposeful sampling method was used to select samples during the snowball procedures. Data were theoretically saturated by interviewing with 21 agricultural graduates and 9 employers and agricultural faculty members. For selecting the graduates to participate in interviewing the most important criteria were their willingness to cooperate, having good experience and adequate information about the research objectives, two years unemployment status after the graduation as well as their attempt to find a job. Data analyzing was proceed during open coding, axial coding and selective coding processes, then to identify themes a Strauss and Corbin (1998) paradigm was used by establishing relationships between themes and casual conditions, contextual conditions, intervention/ intermediate conditions, strategies and consequences. Results showed that the most important barriers and problems faced to the agricultural graduates were: low quality and inappropriate syllabus in universities, lack of university teacher's skills, unawareness to entrepreneurship skills during education, lack of advisory services and supports for the graduates, no enough infrastructures, individual problems like low self-confidence, interest to work, and insufficient skills among the agricultural students and graduates, not enough financial and banking facilities, not strong linkage and coordination between organizations related to agriculture, no appropriate administrative regulations and laws, socio- cultural problems, structural problems in the country's agricultural economy.