Experts: Students need help with job placement

Many university graduates across the world face the same problem - what they learned in school does not match the needs of the real world.

To close the gap, experts suggest intensified collaboration between corporations and schools before graduates enter the job market.

"It is a worldwide phenomenon of mismatched human resources and employer requirements," Tiger Tyagarajan, CEO of India's business process outsourcing company Genpact, said on Wednesday at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2012 in Tianjin.

China is certainly no exception.

The country's workplace faces a profound structural problem, with university graduates having a hard time getting a job even as businesses have difficulty recruiting workers and technicians.

Chen Yu, a job researcher at Peking University, said the country's education structure should be adapted to better match market demands.

Mark Du Ree, a regional head for Swiss human resources company Adecco Group, said some universities are doing a good job in academic collaboration with corporations, which helps graduates better do their work in the real world.

"Corporations are profit driven and by nature want to use people who have experience or have already been trained," he said.

"But corporations should have a sense of social responsibility and hire young people who are the future of the nation," he added. "They should help universities prepare young people better."

Ree said corporations could let universities know what kind of talent they need and then cooperate with schools on programs to train students.

For their part, Ree said university students should think more about what they want to do for a profession and what their passions are during their first two years in school.

Universities should also guide them and help find information about future jobs, he said.

"For example, if you want to work in healthcare, you need know what kind of jobs there are in the field. If you study economics, you have to know what you can do with an economics degree, then you can develop yourself, set goals and set a specific target for when the four years of study ends."

Ree said he also believes lifelong learning is important for employees and companies alike.

"Lifelong learning benefits employability - if a particular job finishes and the company does not need me any more, I can find another job because I have experience that I earned through learning during my former job," he said.

"Employers should also provide training to help update employee knowledge and value as part of their effort to retain talent."

chenxin1@chinadaily.com.cn