Personal Characteristics Affecting Employment Status of Graduates from Agricultural Scientific-Applied Higher Education Centers of Tehran and Alborz Provinces, Iran

This research was done to assess and identify personal characteristics affecting on employment status of Agricultural Scientific-applied Higher Education System of Tehran and Alborz provinces. This study was an applied research and was done as a cause-correlation method. The independent variables were personal characteristics of graduates which were mentioned in groups of individual, educational, occupational, psychological and sociological characteristics. The tool for data collection in this study was questionnaire that its reliability was estimated through Cronbach alpha as of α=89%. Graduates from Agricultural Scientific applied Education Centers of Tehran and Alborz provinces from 2007 to 2009 (N=1712) was considered as the research population and 230 of them were selected as sample through stratified sampling. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics through SPSS software. Based on the results, more than half of graduates were employed while 64.2% of free quota graduates were unemployed. Also regression analysis shows that occupational experience is the most affecting variable in graduates’ employment. Therefore, increasing occupational experience in graduates has significant affect on employment status.