In a major push to address graduate unemployment, China has released new guidelines to build a high-quality employment services system for college graduates. The order, which was issued together by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, maps out a strategic plan to drive adequate and high-quality employment for university graduates.
The policy identifies six key areas of emphasis: improving the higher education training system, reinforcing career guidance services, enhancing job-market and recruitment channels, assisting graduates with job-hunting challenges, innovating employment monitoring mechanisms, and strengthening institutional protection to facilitate employment.
The regulations are intended to create a stable, inclusive, and effective national employment services network in three to five years' time. This is during a consistent rise in the number of graduates in China, which has been in excess of 10 million for each year since 2022. Official estimates indicate the number is expected to climb to 12.22 million in 2025, a rise of 430,000 from the prior year.
A high-ranking Ministry of Education official stressed the need to align higher education with society. For this purpose, the new policy suggests establishing a centralized database of talent demand and carrying out forward-looking analyses of the talent supply-demand situation.
For augmenting the labour pipeline, the government will amend educational frameworks, increase coordination in between enrolment planning and the delivery of employability, as well as push student entrepreneurship to act as one of the strong pillars of work generation. Skills programmes matching demand with supply within important sectors would also be proposed.
The guidelines also suggest the inclusion of time in academic calendars for students to gain experience through internships and pre-graduation job opportunities in order to provide students with a jump-start in the job market.
The holistic strategy represents a decisive move by the Chinese government to help ensure that graduates are better placed to make the leap from education to employment in a highly competitive environment.
