The Consultation had two sessions: 1) Wage employment; 2) Self-employment.  Recent graduates were invited to share their experiences in getting a job and starting up a business.

In the wage employment session, the discussion was focused on how to balance expectation and reality; how to accommodate the new working environment; and how to pursue studies for further career development. Three recent graduates introduced their own experiences in looking for jobs, failing to keep a job, and exploring interests while enhancing knowledge on the job.
 

The students raised concerns on time conflict between college credit courses and employment supportive programmes provided by the university and government, such as internships, lectures on career guidance, etc. One female student mentioned that many companies only recruited men, gender discrimination remained in the labour market. Residential cards - ‘Hukou’ were another barrier for them to get a decent job. Many students complained that they didn’t have sufficient information on jobs, internship programmes, and other government supportive measures for university students. Students also pointed out that it was important for government to develop follow-up measures to provide further employment opportunities for university graduates who joined the programme to work as village heads (known as ‘Cun Guan’) or internship programmes in enterprises, since such programmes were usually short term and led them to face a second employment challenge very soon.

 

On the other hand, one teacher from the university employment guidance centre introduced different forms of career guidance courses and job fairs organised by the centre, noting that students’ participation rate was very low. He suggested that students should check the website of university employment guidance centre regularly to get information for better preparation for employment.

 

Resource persons from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS), the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the China Enterprises Confederation (CEC) and the All China Youth Federation (ACYF) described policy measures and supportive programmes to expand employment for university students including: 1) Graduates encouraged to work in villages as village officials, teachers, doctors, and to provide assistance for poverty reduction; 2) Graduates encouraged to work in Western Regions; 3) Graduates encouraged to participate in internship programmes; 4) Graduates encouraged to work in SMEs.  

 

It was recommended that university career guidance centres should be strengthened to provide students with effective employment guidance including career planning, techniques for job application, preparation for interview, etc.; government should create more suitable jobs for university graduates; university should provide skills training courses in line with market needs; enterprises, the youth league and other social partners should be fully involved in the issue of youth employment; and students should have life-long learning habit, and take each employment chance as a learning opportunity. 

 

In the session on self-employment, three recent graduates told their stories about starting their own businesses. Although they had dreams of having their own business, it was not easy to run the business. It required not only financial resources but also social networks. Although some had experienced failure, they were still exploring business opportunities. They mentioned that it was important to have a training base/business incubator for potential business starters to enable them to put into practice their business ideas, guide them on fund-raising, and help them get loans.

 

During the discussion, the resource persons from MOHRSS, ACFTU, CEC and ACYF introduced their progammes to support business start-ups, including training, micro-credit, employment services for business starters. The university professor shared that 4.5% of China Agricultural University graduates were willing to create their own jobs, but lack of information and sufficient preparation were the main causes for failure.

 

It was recommended that government and social partners should strengthen information sharing on micro-credit, application procedures, as well as other relevant assistance. Meanwhile, students were also urged to actively seek information from different channels to make full use of available support for business start-ups.