[photopress:chinese_student_crowd.jpg,full,alignright]This is not unique to China. It is a world-wide complaint. Wu Min, director of the Adult Education Society of the Chinese Ministry of Education, said in Beijing that Chinese college graduates urgently need training that is tailored to real job vacancies in the marketplace to increase their chances of finding a job.
He said that more and more graduates are choosing occupational training before hunting for jobs. Sadly, the fast-growing occupational training industry has no standards and is developing in an uncontrolled manner.
Showing the right attitude Wu Min said, ‘To improve the situation, we will seek feedback from Chinese college students.’
He said that over a period of five months, students’ impressions and experiences of occupational training organizations — their on-campus exhibitions, their marketing and their courses — will be compiled and analyzed.
Wu Min cited the example of a young man graduating from the maths department of a prestigious university who submitted more than 300 resumes but received no reply. He then took a three-month software testing course, and on the strength of that was able to join Huawei, one of China’s leading computer companies.
Wu Min said, ‘Occupational training can help bridge the gap between academic knowledge and market demand.’
Statistics show that China now has 23,470 non-governmental occupational training agencies which boast more than eight million enrollments per year. Nearly one fourth of the course participants are college students.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that 1.08 million students graduated from Chinese colleges in 1998, but the number rocketed to 4.13 million in 2006. The number is expected to jump to 4.95 million this year.
The huge number of graduates has created new employment pressures. The nearly five million college graduates this year will compete with other social groups for a total of nine million jobs.
Source: People’s Daily Online