The state of agricultural graduates in the labour market

Szűcs, Csaba – Zörög, Zoltán

Keywords: career tracking of graduates of higher education, agricultural higher education, chances of entrance into a profession for graduates

The examination of the continuity between higher education and the labour market is a research area of increasing interest. It is generally accepted that people with a higher education degree can more easily find a job and receive a higher salary than those with intermediate or lower levels of education. Naturally there are professional fields in which it is easier to find a job – in this case payment is usually lower. In other areas the opposite tendency holds true. The aim of this paper is to present a survey of how graduates in agricultural studies value the work that is connected directly or indi-rectly to the education of the higher education institution, and to what extent in their current jobs they are able to use the knowledge that they acquired during their studies. It is also worth examining whether the present main or second jobs of the respondents are connected to their qualifications and also how long it took them to find employ-ment after graduation. The majority of agricultural graduates managed to find em-ployment within three months in the surveyed period (an average of 3.8 to 5.4 months were needed for them to find suitable jobs), while other graduates were more likely to find jobs during the same time. In an international context Hungarian undergraduates can find employment almost as fast as their counterparts in leading European coun-tries. Most undergraduates (ca. 60%) of agricultural sciences can find a job within three months during the examined period while 70% of undergraduates of other disci-plines can find employment in the same time. Unfortunately, the tasks of more than half of the job holders do not fully match their qualifications; in addition 24.6 % of the work of graduates of agricultural education is completely different from their qualifica-tion, they took up professions in different fields. Based on the information gathered it can be advantageous to stay in the agriculture sector from the career development point of view because within a few years after graduation agricultural graduates are more likely to become managers than graduates of other disciplines.

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