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China moves to find graduates more jobs

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-11 14:22

BEIJING -- Finding jobs for college graduates is a growing problem in China. It became an even harder task for the 6.1 million June graduates after the country began to feel the effects of the global financial crisis in late 2008.

Compounding the problem is around 1.5 million graduates who failed to find jobs last year, a half million increase from 2007, according to data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS).

So why can't they find jobs and how can China solve this problem? Three experts believe they have the answers.

Enrollment Expansion in 1999

In the mid 1980s, China's college enrollment rate stood at about three percent, lower than many developing countries. In the early 1990s, the number rose to five percent.

Around 1999, the country's education department sensed the need to expand the college enrollment rate, said Lu Hanlong, director of Society and Development Studies of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

"Part of the reason for this was a baby boom in the early 1980s. That's when China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) ended and many young people went back to cities, got married and had children," Lu said.

"About 19 years later, around 1999, it was time for the new generation to go to college. As a result, the grand expansion policy began," Lu added.

The central government deployed many measures to expand college enrollment. It built more schools, hired more professors and offered more scholarships to poor students.

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As a result, in 1999, universities enrolled 1.59 million students, up 41.2 percent from the previous year. Since then, the numbers just kept climbing.

In 2002, the college enrollment rate reached 15 percent. It rose to 19 percent in 2005. With 23 million students going to college, China had the highest enrollment rate in the world at the time.

Lu said "the expansion policy was helpful for improving the nation's quality".

However, so many students seeking higher education all at once had negative effects as well.

"The grand college enrollment plan is one of the main reasons for the current unemployment issue," said Zhou Haiwang, deputy director with Population and Development Studies of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

"Although the number of jobs increased in recent years as China's economy boomed, too many graduates coming out at one time created a great pressure for the job market," Zhou said.

"The policy had led to a degradation of teaching quality and conditions in universities as well", said Zhou. OUT OF TOUCH: SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Supply not only outweighed demand, many employers questioned the type of education this boom of college graduates received.

"At present many companies do not trust new graduates, who may have learned 'mountains of' theories but also lack practical abilities," said Wang Yi, associate researcher of Shanghai Public Administration and Human Resources Studies.

"Thus many employers would prefer graduates from some higher vocational technical schools rather than college students," Wang said.

"That's the 'supply and demand out of touch' problem, in China's employment market," Wang said.

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