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Skilled workers find jobs while college graduates struggle
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AS many as 7.2 million college students will graduate next month. For most of them, a full-time job is the goal.
However, many will add to the rising ranks of unemployed fresh and recent graduates armed with ambition and diplomas. Many of them are, in effect, victims of a traditional reverence for book learning, diplomas and degrees, as opposed to what is perceived to be lower status, practical skilled labor.
In Beijing and Shanghai, only around 30 percent of the senior students were expected to be hired after graduation by last month. Increasingly, employers in China complain about a mismatch between college grad applicants’ expectations and their competencies.
At the same time as many graduates hunt desperately for work, more than 95 percent of Chinese vocational graduates find work immediately after graduation, and have done so for the past six years. Why? Because they are trained in accordance with what employers need and some of them enroll in school programs sponsored by commercial enterprises.
Last month, a history postgraduate at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou City hanged himself. He said in a note that he was in despair because he couldn’t find a job.
It cannot be denied that history is an important social science, but history majors, and many others in the social sciences and liberal arts, face an uphill battle in finding work.
By contrast, many commercial enterprises demand skilled technicians. A senior manager at a solar panel manufacturer once told me that many of his subordinates might not be good at theory but were skilled practitioners and were paid generously.
Perhaps that’s why Britain and many other Western countries have revived and strengthened their state subsidized apprenticeship programs. Britain launched an apprenticeship program in 1994 with only 65,000 participants nationwide at first. But more than 1.1 million applicants competed for 500,000 vacancies last year.
In England, around 200,000 enterprises joined the scheme. Apprentices work three or four days a week at the companies and spend one day in the classroom. Each is taught one-to-one by a journeyman or master craftsman in workshops. Journeymen also teach in classrooms. That’s why graduates of the apprenticeship program perform ably in their jobs after a period of practice and learning.
The UK government also set up a certification-remuneration system for apprentices. Those who have achieved National Vocational Qualification Level 3 are paid around 25,000 pounds (US$42,200) annually, almost equal to the beginning salary of a college graduate. But the diploma-holders probably would not find work as easily.
Fortunately, some local governments in China have introduced subsidized apprenticeship programs at some enterprises and vocational schools, though still on a trial basis.
Premier Li Keqiang has vowed to enhance vocational education. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has decided to turn half of the 1,200 colleges nationwide into higher vocational schools. But China should also have its own government-subsidized apprenticeship system.
Vocational education could be part of a person’s lifelong education. If someone wishes to go to college after working for a period of time, the government could help them realize their dreams and equip society with more well-educated practitioners.
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