ＭＡＮ　ＫＡＩＹＡＮ　ＱＩ　ＪＩＥＬＵＮ　ＹＡＮＧ　ＺＨＥＮＧＷＥＮ

Leaders in education have

cited the shortage of

vocational training slots

directly contributes to the problem of unemployment.

THE world economic crisis is heightening the tension of young job-seekers in China, with neither migrant workers nor college graduates spared its devastating impacts. Many experts believe widespread lay-offs and joblessness in these groups could be mitigated by the promotion of vocational training. The strategic arguments are persuasive, and challenge common notions about the value of respective kinds of work.

Graduates in Oversupply;

Trades in Demand

Late last year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) gave notice that the master program enrolment capacity must increase by five percent. This is the second time MOE has enlarged the scale of graduate schools, the last being in 1999 when colleges nationwide experienced unprecedented demand for enrolment. That academic achievement is no guarantee of a job was underscored just four years after this first expansion. The swell in the ranks of the college educated – to some six million from 1.8 million in 1998 – soon brought on the job-hunting difficulties of 2003. Temporary measures such as this are again expected to create a buffer area for job hunters and a way out for struggling graduates, but they could also become the foundation for more proactive human resource development strategies.

Some critics feel accepting more students into current college programs will simply postpone a review of what kinds of labor pools a national policy needs to stimulate. An academic preparation “wont necessarily improve a graduates employability, and it certainly doesnt offer a radical solution to satisfying actual labor market demand,” cautions MOE research fellow Jiang Dayuan of the Research Institute for Vocational Education. “If we cant jump out of the educational circle to deal with education, if we cant jump out of the college circle to deal with college issues, if we cant jump out of the problem itself to resolve it within the wider social context, the graduates will still fail to find jobs. If the content of college programs isnt up to date, nor the teaching methods, students skills and knowledge will fail to answer the demands of enterprises and society.”

Chen Yu, deputy director of the China Association of Employment Advocacy, believes that the country is experiencing changes dramatic enough to justify more constructive and universal solutions. He points out the volume of high school graduates going on to attend college now stands at 25 percent, much higher than the 5 percent of 1999. Even so, Chen doubts the supply will fit the demand. According to his figures, the approximately 10 percent growth rate maintained by the Chinese economy for the last few years has significantly enlarged its appetite for talent. “If one percentage of growth per annum needs to be matched by a million laborers, then ten percentage points call for ten million more laborers every year. “But,” he echoes Jiangs concerns, “only one tenth of the 10 million jobs are fit for college students.”