INCREASING THE QUALITY OF EMPLOYMENT IN RURAL AREAS THROUGH THE EDUCATION ADAPTED TO LABOR MARKET REQUIREMENTS

Education is a key element for revitalizing rural areas in the frame of which the agricultural sector is to become an engine of growth and a source of jobs due to the better use of the real agricultural and non-agricultural potential of Romania. Having informed and trained farmers will have a positive impact on the quality of employment, entrepreneurship and growth performance of the agriculture.
The paper focuses on an evolutionary quantitative analysis of the level of education and training in rural areas done over two main pillars: school population and employed population from the rural area. The study is based on available official statistical data from the last 10 years. From the main indicators underlying the whole analysis, the worth mentioning are: the volume and structure of the school population by level of education; the structure of the graduates by level of education; the share of the employed population by level of education in total employed population; people in the rural area which have a secondary activity according with their level of training, etc. This analysis is completed by another contextual socio-economic study focused on the characteristics of the rural environment. The correlation between the supply and demand of the labor force in the rural environment is analyzed across factors such as: level of study, field training, knowledge and skills obtained, based on data collected through our own sociological quantitative survey. Data was collected in 2015, based on the perception of different heads of households from rural area whi were selected at a national level. The sample includes 1070 respondents, who were stratified into seven development regions, selected both probabilistic and by the multistage method.
As a result of the mentioned studies, the paper proposes measures to increase the quality of employment in the rural area focused on restructuring the existing farms (that practice subsistence agriculture) into commercial and competitive farms and on transferring the labor force from the subsistence agriculture to the non-agriculture activities with potential for growth and development.