Training Needs Assessment of Cooperatives in Applicable Technical and Vocational Educations in Kermanshah (Iran)

Abstract

The present study was aimed to determine and prioritize the training needs of industrial, agricultural and service cooperatives in technical and vocational educations and the current educational courses for these enterprises. Furthermore, the gap between these two items is evaluated in Kermanshah province (Iran). A discrepancy approach and the Klein's needs assessment model were used. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 400 individuals who were selected randomly based on cluster sampling procedure from all active cooperatives in the province. The data were collected using a questionnaire. In all three cooperatives, number of respondents attended in high priority educational needs courses in common trainings were very few. In this respect, only 35.4 (few) and 6.1 (very few) of the respondents have respectively passed courses on accounting of cooperatives (basic) and marketing and market as the first and second needs mentioned in common trainings. In industrial cooperatives the production course has the highest priority among the respondents that 1.1 of them passed this course. Among the agricultural cooperatives, the management of broiler farms has the highest priority with 2.6 participation percentage. Comparison of the training needs and participation rate of technical and vocational training courses in agricultural, industrial and service cooperatives in Kermanshah province showed small agreement between these two items; such that the findings indicate a trial and error approach in educational policy decision making. © 2012 Asian Network for Scientific Information.