Higher Education and the Labor Market: Examining the Curriculum Compliance with the required Education of Jobs by Mediation of Entrepreneurial Competency

Objective: 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. therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of educational program quality on the mismatch of education required by jobs with respect to the mediating role of entrepreneurial competencies in the graduates.
Materials and methods: This research was applied in terms of purpose and according to the method was descriptive and based on structural equation modeling. The study's statistical population involved 9335 employed graduates of Urmia University in the 2016-2021 academic years. Random sampling method was used for selecting 411 of these graduates as the sample of the study. To collect data, used from the 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) which validity and reliability were reviewed and approved.
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 eeducation-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). so, paying attention to curriculum development based on entrepreneurial competencies is able to provide technical skills, with the development of soft skills of graduates, placement of them in jobs related toto their academic fields.