Key skills role in employability formation of college students

Nowadays, supply of appropriate and sustainable job opportunities for graduates are one of the main concerns of higher educational systems in any country. The issue of employ ability has been proposed in this regard as a new mechanism in policy making and guiding related processes. The purpose of this study was to rank the key skills delivered thought curriculum content for employability formation among agriculture students. Statistical sample included 1491 agricultural students at University of Tehran that of whom 310 students were randomly selected. To measure the research constructs a questionnaire was employed. Its face validity confirmed by expert panel and its reliability estimated at 0.81 by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. For data processing, second order confirmatory factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling method was employed. The empirical results indicated that employability is depended on three dimensions including business development skills, personal development skills and academic skills. A comparison among three dimensions showed that business development skills role was more important. As a result, paying attention to the curriculum content, in a way that will lead to further business development skills, is the most important priorities in developing agricultural higher education in Iran.