Employer Attitudes and Perceptions of Job Preparedness of Recent Iowa State University Horticulture Graduates

The Iowa State University undergraduate horticulture program is ranked as one of the best in the nation. Regular and systematic assessment of curriculum, graduates and employers who hire our students is one means to evaluate the program for purposes of sustaining this level of excellence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes and perceptions of employers who have recently hired Iowa State University Department of Horticulture graduates in regard to the graduate’s preparedness when entering the workforce and their abilities to complete job responsibilities.  A 77-question survey instrument was disturbed electronically to 106 employers who hired ISU Department of Horticulture students who graduated from spring semester 2004 through summer session 2007. A majority of the survey questions were directly related to expected learner outcomes from the undergraduate curriculum. These outcomes related to abilities in professional skills (19 questions), general horticulture (6 questions), and global perspective (7 questions). Twenty-four additional questions asked employers to rank the importance of skills in the areas of general horticulture (12 questions) and business (12 questions).  A final set of nine questions asked employers to rank the importance of work experience, attitude and job preparedness. The response rate was 36%. Results showed that 52% of employers felt graduates were more than adequately to exceptionally well prepared for the position they were hired for, and another 41% felt students were adequately prepared. Overall employers ranked graduates abilities in professional skills (4.18), general horticulture (4.25) and global perspective (4.30) as good to excellent on a scale of 1 to 5 (1=very poor; 2=poor; 3=fair; 4=good; 5=excellent). Employers ranked all 12 of the general horticulture skills listed in the survey as having average to above average importance (4.02) and the 12 questions related to business skills had a similar average ranking (4.11) on a scale of 1-5 (1=not important; 2=below average importance; 3=average importance; 4=above average importance; 5=very important). In the final group of questions related to work experience, attitude and job preparedness employers ranked ‘good work ethic’ as the most important skill giving it an 5.0 on a 1-5 scale (1=not important; 5=very important). The remaining eight questions averaged 3.75 on the 1-5 scale. Results from this research will be used to modify existing curriculum and expected learner outcomes to better prepare ISU horticulture graduates entering the workforce.