Authors

• Hassan Pourjavadkhah ¹
• Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari ²
• Fatholah Keshavarz ³
• Masoumeh Mohammadzadeh ⁴

¹ MSc in Agricultural Management, Islamic Azad University of Rasht, Rasht, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Management, Islamic Azad University of Rasht, Iran

³ Lecturer, Department of Agricultural Management and Development, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Institute, Iran

⁴ Islamic Azad University of Rasht, Iran

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess the educational needs of rural youth on agricultural entrepreneurial activities in Guilan province. The statistical population of this study consisted of rural youth who were between 15-35 year old (N = 2598) and the sample size was determined by using a minimum sample size table for given population by Bartlett et al. (n = 262). In order to assess the educational needs, a questionnaire based on Borich Model was used. Data analysis was performed using (SPSS₁₈). The educational needs were analyzed and ranked using Mean Weighted Descriptive Scores (MWDS). Results showed that competencies such as “identifying principles of proper decision-making procedures” was noticed as the most important priority for education. Although, “identifying principles of proper establishment of home employment" was in the last rank in educational needs. MWDS indicated that all competencies were in the high level of needs. The findings of t and F-tests reveal that there were no significant differences between individual characteristics and contextual factors, while “local markets in the village or neighboring village” had a significant effect on educational needs (p < 0.05).

Keywords

• Need
• Educational Need Assessment
• Borich Needs Model
• Rural Youth
• Entrepreneurship