Abstract

Summary
The aim was to identify and model the effective factors on the development of employment of sports science graduates, and provide a conceptual framework. The research method was descriptive-correlation. According to the findings, the model included three environmental and ecosystem levels, structural and systemic levels, and then functional and development levels. The fit indices of the model were at a favorable level. Thus the change in the relatively traditional and inefficient system of education in the Azad universities towards new, skill-oriented, and employable approaches requires changes in the generality of the educational system and more independence in the decision-making of educational programs in the Azad universities.
Introduction
The educational systems have employability, skill-oriented, and entrepreneurial orientation (1). The employability of students and graduates depends on the other factors in addition to the quality of education, which have different results based on the regional and ecosystem conditions (2). The sports education and employment system consist of various components and various relationships between them; therefore, management in such a system will be very complex. An Azad University has few acceptable methods to properly measure its adaptation to environmental changes. In this research work, an effort is made to study the factors influencing the employment development of the sports science graduates of the Azad Universities and analyze them in a coordinated way with an ecosystem perspective.
Methodology and Approach
The research method was descriptive-correlation. The statistical population included the sports science professors of the Azad Universities, the employed sports science graduates, the managers and professors of the Azad Universities, and the experts in the field of employment in sports. The number of samples was estimated and selected based on the sufficient number for modeling in the PLS software, 10 to 20 times the number of questions related to the variable with the most questions in the model (3). Therefore, 168 people were estimated to be 12 times the number of variable questions with the highest number of questions (14 questions in employment development strategies). The research tool was a questionnaire extracted from the qualitative phase of the research work. For this purpose, the systematic library study and exploratory interview were used. In the qualitative part, sampling was done with a purposeful (judgmental) method until a theoretical saturation was reached (16 people). These people included the university professors, executive managers, entrepreneurs, and post-graduate graduates (business owners in sports) in the field of physical education. The questionnaire was set on a five-point Likert scale (from very low = 1 to very high = 5). The face and content validity of the questionnaire was given to six professors and six administrators and confirmed. The reliability or internal consistency of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha (ɑ = 0.86). In inferential statistics, it was designed using the partial least squares method in three parts: the measurement model, the structural model, and the general model. The structural model section also contains all the structures mentioned in the main model of the research work, and the degree of correlation between the structures and the relationships between them is the focus and attention in this part. In the general model section, which includes both measurement and structural model sections, the fit check in a model is completed by verifying its fit.
Result and Conclusion
In the fitting of the model, the first investigated index was included, which was favorable. For the differential validity of the measurement model, the Fornell and Locker's criterion was used, which was favorable. It is a reliability analysis index that is equal to and above 7 0, and is listed as appropriate. The value of R2 was calculated to fit the endogenous (dependent) structures of the model, and had three levels: weak, medium and strong. The Q2 criterion specifies the predictive power of the model, and in the case of an endogenous construct, it specifies the weak, medium, and strong predictive power. The results of the quantitative part showed that in the structural equation model of the research work, all fit indices were favorable. 
Based on the path analysis of the relationships between the main variables, it was determined that the approaches of the educational system had a positive and significant effect on the sports science capabilities of the Azad Universities, the management of graduate employment challenges, and the capacities of the employment system in sports. The market of employment trends had a positive and significant effect on the management of graduate employment challenges and the capacities of the employment system in sports. The sports science capabilities of the Azad Universities had a positive and significant effect on the capacities of the employment system in sports and the strategies for developing the employment of the graduates. The capacities of the employment system in sports had a positive and significant effect on the management of graduate employment challenges and graduate employment development strategies. Management of graduate employment challenges had a positive and significant effect on the graduate employment development strategies. The graduate employment development strategies had a positive and significant effect on the possible and preferred outcomes. It is suggested that the components, themes, and framework presented in this research work should be used for the conceptual enrichment of documents and programs, comprehensiveness in decisions and actions, as well as process perspective in the evaluation and management of performance related to education and employment of graduates. From a systemic viewpoint, the approach of relationships between the variables is from the ecosystem-environmental factors (precedence and contextual role) to structural-systemic factors (process role), and finally, the functional-consequence factors (consequence role). From the multi-level viewpoint, the macro-micro factors and the individual-organizational-institutional factors have been identified. A previous research work also confirms the generality of the research conceptual model. The generality of the model is aligned and compatible with the model-oriented research in the fields of the country's sports entrepreneurship ecosystem. However, the difference between this research work and other previous research works is related to the application of the ecosystem approach in identifying and framing the influencing variables. In fact, the structures of the conceptual model of this research work are a combination of the main conceptual structures (sports sciences, free university, employment, labor market, etc.) with an internal and external perspective.

Keywords

• Job Creation in Sports
• Student Employability
• Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
• Labor Market
• Physical Education

Main Subjects

• آموزش، یادگیری و توسعه منابع انسانی در ورزش