Shahid Beheshti University Journal of Management and Planning In Educational System 2423-5261 17 1 2024 03 20 Higher Education and the Labor Market: Examining the Curriculum Compliance with the Required Education of Jobs by Mediation of Entrepreneurial Competency Higher Education and the Labor Market: Examining the Curriculum Compliance with the Required Education of Jobs by Mediation of Entrepreneurial Competency 131 154 104611 10.48308/mpes.2024.233944.1398 FA Mohammad Hassani Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran 0000-0002-6421-429X Journal Article 2023 11 29 Objectives: As one of the two main levers of education, the higher education system is responsible for training a large part of skilled and efficient human resources required by the labor market at different levels and disciplines and one of the important components for judging the internal and external efficiency of higher education systems is the quality of human resources training in harmony with the needs and changes of the labor market. Failure to pay attention to this issue will lead to the training of graduates whose knowledge and skills are not proportional to the needs and requirements of jobs, and the ever-increasing number of educated unemployed indicates that the training provided in the university does not match the real needs of the labor market. On the other hand, higher education institutions train students by focusing on disciplinary, academic, and technical skills, while most of them lack soft skills in addition to these specialized competencies. These competencies and skills are related to all disciplines and required in all modern jobs and career paths, and the development of entrepreneurial skills and competencies is of particular importance; because higher levels of entrepreneurial skills reduce the likelihood of over-education for university graduates and help people get better jobs, even if they are looking for salaried jobs rather than self-employment; therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of educational program quality on the mismatch of education required by jobs concerning the mediating role of entrepreneurial competencies in the graduates.<br />Materials and Methods: In terms of the purpose of this research, it was an applied research type and in terms of the method of data collection and analysis, it was a survey-descriptive research based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the research consisted of all undergraduate students of Urmia University from 2016 to 2021 in the number of 9335 people who were currently employed. Based on Cochran's formula, 411 people were selected as samples by random sampling method. To collect data, used standard questionnaires of horizontal and vertical mismatch by Chavadi et al. (2022), curriculum quality by Mohammad Shafi et al. (2020), and entrepreneurial competence by Janso Solu et al. (2022). The face and content validity of the questionnaires were checked and confirmed based on the opinion of experts, and to check the construct validity of the research tools, confirmatory factor analysis was used by Lisrel software, and the reliability of the tools was also calculated and confirmed. Lisrel software was used to analyze the data obtained from the questionnaires and to model the structural equations. <br />Discussion and Conclusion: The results of the research indicated that the quality of the curriculum had a significant and negative effect on education-job mismatch (t=-4.28, P<0.01) and had a direct effect on the entrepreneurial competence (t=3.36, P<0.01) and there was a negative and significant relationship between entrepreneurial competence and education-job mismatch (t=-5.53, P<0.01); Entrepreneurial competence had a mediating role in the relationship between curriculum quality and education-job mismatch (ß = 0.06, P < 0.01). According to the obtained results, universities and institutions of higher education in addition to scientific, cultural, and social functions, should pay attention to the business expectations of society and train their students with curricula that match the needs of the labor market, because this suitability improves the employability of university graduates and partially compensates the country's employment and production problem by relying on expert, entrepreneurial, skilled and competent human resources. On the other hand, paying attention to developing a curriculum based on entrepreneurial competencies and preparing parallel entrepreneurial and competency-enhancing courses can facilitate their placement in jobs related to their academic field by expanding the soft skills of graduates, in addition to providing specialized skills.  Objectives: As one of the two main levers of education, the higher education system is responsible for training a large part of skilled and efficient human resources required by the labor market at different levels and disciplines and one of the important components for judging the internal and external efficiency of higher education systems is the quality of human resources training in harmony with the needs and changes of the labor market. Failure to pay attention to this issue will lead to the training of graduates whose knowledge and skills are not proportional to the needs and requirements of jobs, and the ever-increasing number of educated unemployed indicates that the training provided in the university does not match the real needs of the labor market. On the other hand, higher education institutions train students by focusing on disciplinary, academic, and technical skills, while most of them lack soft skills in addition to these specialized competencies. These competencies and skills are related to all disciplines and required in all modern jobs and career paths, and the development of entrepreneurial skills and competencies is of particular importance; because higher levels of entrepreneurial skills reduce the likelihood of over-education for university graduates and help people get better jobs, even if they are looking for salaried jobs rather than self-employment; therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of educational program quality on the mismatch of education required by jobs concerning the mediating role of entrepreneurial competencies in the graduates.<br />Materials and Methods: In terms of the purpose of this research, it was an applied research type and in terms of the method of data collection and analysis, it was a survey-descriptive research based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the research consisted of all undergraduate students of Urmia University from 2016 to 2021 in the number of 9335 people who were currently employed. Based on Cochran's formula, 411 people were selected as samples by random sampling method. To collect data, used standard questionnaires of horizontal and vertical mismatch by Chavadi et al. (2022), curriculum quality by Mohammad Shafi et al. (2020), and entrepreneurial competence by Janso Solu et al. (2022). The face and content validity of the questionnaires were checked and confirmed based on the opinion of experts, and to check the construct validity of the research tools, confirmatory factor analysis was used by Lisrel software, and the reliability of the tools was also calculated and confirmed. Lisrel software was used to analyze the data obtained from the questionnaires and to model the structural equations. <br />Discussion and Conclusion: The results of the research indicated that the quality of the curriculum had a significant and negative effect on education-job mismatch (t=-4.28, P<0.01) and had a direct effect on the entrepreneurial competence (t=3.36, P<0.01) and there was a negative and significant relationship between entrepreneurial competence and education-job mismatch (t=-5.53, P<0.01); Entrepreneurial competence had a mediating role in the relationship between curriculum quality and education-job mismatch (ß = 0.06, P < 0.01). According to the obtained results, universities and institutions of higher education in addition to scientific, cultural, and social functions, should pay attention to the business expectations of society and train their students with curricula that match the needs of the labor market, because this suitability improves the employability of university graduates and partially compensates the country's employment and production problem by relying on expert, entrepreneurial, skilled and competent human resources. On the other hand, paying attention to developing a curriculum based on entrepreneurial competencies and preparing parallel entrepreneurial and competency-enhancing courses can facilitate their placement in jobs related to their academic field by expanding the soft skills of graduates, in addition to providing specialized skills.  https://mpes.sbu.ac.ir/article_104611_f69e1c25bd59a881c4eece81cf361768.pdf