This year, there are altogether 2.8 million students who
graduated from college, an increase of over 30 percent compared
with last year. The increase in the number of college graduates
aggravates the already tough employment market.
But according to Lin Huiqing, director of the College Students
Department of the Ministry of Education, China has realized its
goal of employing 70 percent of college graduates set for this
year.
“We have fully fulfilled the goal that we set earlier this year.
By September 1, the employment rate of college graduates had
reached 73 percent, an increase of 3 percentage points compared to
that in the same time last year, or an increase of 560,000
employed.”
Half of the graduates this year choose to work in privately
owned companies and foreign invested companies, or set up their own
business. In addition, an increasing number of students have gone
to work in the less developed west China regions.
Otherwise, voluntary service has become the first choice of many
students. In the national voluntary service program for the western
part of the country, a total of 6,212 new members were recruited
from universities, 4,000 more than that of last year.
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In the meantime, 18 provinces and cities launched local voluntary
service programs with 70 million yuan (US$8.5 million) investment,
sending 6,939 campus volunteers into the fields of agriculture,
education, health and poverty relief in underdeveloped areas within
the regions.
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Statistics from many universities show that the number of graduate
volunteers to west and northeast China has increased.?At Tsinghua
University, one of the most famous universities in China, 43
percent of graduates chose grass root institutes and businesses. As
a result, west China’s Gansu
Province received 2,800 more graduates than last year.
“Thanks to the development strategy of the country and national
policies, employment for Chinese college students has really made a
concrete step forward,” Lin added.
In fact, China has adopted a lot of measures to help college
graduates find jobs, including setting courses on finding jobs,
creating more career opportunities, establishing employment
information networks, and encouraging graduates to work in less
developed regions or start their own businesses.
However, there are still problems. For example, commitments to
providing business loans or favorable taxation policies have not
yet been put into practice in some regions and market information
has not been easily accessed or adequately used.
Education official Lin Huiqing also points out that related
Chinese departments will make joint efforts to create an even
better employment environment for college graduates.
“We will further modify our related policies, call off policy
barriers?that put limits on the employment of college
graduates at local levels, further foster, explore and regulate the
employment market and adopt more positive policies to encourage
students to work in west China and less developed regions.”
It is said that the number of college graduates will continue to
grow next year and reach 3.4 million. Their employment will still
be a great challenge for China.
(CRI.com, Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2004)