Unemployed students at an overheated labor market - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Higher education in China is lagging behind, forcing 25 percent of its graduates to stay unemployed, while companies have a hard time to find qualified employees to deal with its economic growth, writes Shaun Rein today in Forbes. One of the country's more serious conundrums as unrest among its students is growing, traditionally one of China's sources of social unrest - not the farmers,

Shaun Rein:

Class sizes are too big, teachers teach by rote, and students are not given the interdisciplinary liberal arts education they need... Rather, students typically focus on a single discipline, like accounting, for their entire four years of college, leaving them unable to adjust to a global business environment that demands flexible thinking. They are bright and eager, but unprepared to work effectively for a global corporation..

My own firm, the China Market Research Group, is actively hiring but simply can't grow as fast as we want and as the market is demanding. For every thousand résumés we receive, we find perhaps two candidates who are qualified. Our standards are extremely high, but many multinationals are facing the same problem.

China's education system needs to change and change fast if China is going to prevent social instability and ensure a steady transition from low-cost manufacturing to a more service-oriented economy.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch. Are you looking for other speakers on labor issues? Do click here.

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