Students go west for better career opportunities
2005-08-09

BEIJING, Aug. 9 -- Liu Dongyang, who received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Fudan University in Shanghai this June, is undergoing a personnel training programme with the PetroChina Company in Tarim basin, in the heart of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.

When we reached him on the phone, he was buying books at a bookstore in Korla, a major urban centre in the basin.

"With books and the Internet, I don't feel too isolated here," Liu said.

Liu left his home in Beijing for Tarim early this July and will soon start work in the oil and gas field after finishing the initial training.

"I'm quite used to everything here," Liu said, "and the living conditions are much better than I expected."

The job opportunity in Tarim arose at the end of last year, completely changing Liu's original plan to work in the southern city of Shenzhen.

"I took sociology as my major, but wanted to try a job in an engineering company," he said. "I had a two-month internship in a government office early last year, but found the job very boring. Now I've given myself another choice.

"I believe working here will help me mature faster, and give me opportunities to get in touch with people of different social levels."

Liu's mother Liu Cuiling expressed her understanding of his choice.

"Some relatives don't understand why he decided to work so far away, and considered it a rash decision. But I would like my son to take his future into his own hands."

Liu is one of the 61 graduates from Fudan University who have chosen to work in western regions and grass-roots units this year.

"The number has doubled from last year," said Xu Mei, director of the university graduate recruitment office. "To work in those areas will give graduates more opportunities and bring their abilities fully into play."

Liu and his pals have set an example for the government promoted go-west programme. Early this July, China's State Council issued a circular reiterating its encouragement to college graduates who seek jobs at grass-roots organizations.

The circular promulgated favourable policies for graduates who voluntarily work in these remote areas and grass-roots organizations. The circular says compared to local agency employees at the same level, students will receive better pay, and will be free to leave for the big cities after five years.

It also says the government will help pay student loans if they work in these places for a certain number of years, and this experience will count for a lot in their future career, for instance, when they apply for jobs as civil servants.

"The main reason why students are reluctant to work in remote areas and grass-roots organizations is because of the difference in salaries and living standards compared with the big cities," said Yin Weimin, vice-minister of personnel.

"We hope these favourable policies may help attract more students there."

Students, especially those from top universities, have responded to the call of the country enthusiastically.

From Tsinghua University alone, 1,281 students applied for jobs in western areas, or at grass-roots organizations or with key research projects. They accounted for 43 per cent of its total graduates.

"It's up by 5 per cent compared to last year," said Zheng Haojun, secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee of the university.

Now 161 graduates from Tsinghua have arrived or are arriving in the western regions.

The programme encouraging college students to voluntarily work in China's west started two years ago.

The programme was jointly launched by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Personnel.

Under the programme, so far 24,929 college graduates have started their careers in more than 300 economically depressed counties and towns in the west.

At the moment, this year's newly recruited 8,602 volunteers from 1,309 colleges across the country are leaving for poverty-stricken counties in 26 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

They will take up jobs as teachers, medical workers, farming technicians, as well as legal consultancy.

Tang Yagang, former vice-chairman of the Peking University Students' Union said he benefited a lot from his six-month experience of being a voluntarily worker in Datong County in Northwest China's Qinghai Province.

He went to Datong with seven other schoolmates to teach this January and has just returned.

"I was deeply impressed by the poverty there," said Tang, a 2004 philosophy graduate. "A steamed bun could serve as the food for some students for a whole week. I feel a sense of responsibility to help them study better and thus create a better future."

Tang said that organizations at grass-roots levels warmly welcome voluntary workers, but a small number of volunteers find it difficult to adapt to the living conditions, and even suffer from depression.

"Before making the decision, students should prepare themselves for the hard life there," Tang said. "However, it is also deeply rewarding."

Despite the Go West programme, most students have opted to look for jobs in urban centres.

Gao Weili, a 22-year-old dynamics graduate from the Beijing University of Science and Technology, is facing the most difficult time in his life.

"I've been to more than 20 job fairs since I graduated this July, but still failed to find a satisfactory job," he said wearily.

Among Gao's 29 classmates, seven others are also struggling to find jobs, and 13 have chosen to pursue master's degrees in an attempt to avoid the highly competitive job market.

Starting from 2002, the year when the first batch of students in China's expanded college enrolment programme graduated, finding an acceptable job has become an ordeal, as the number of graduates has exploded.

Last year, 2.8 million college students graduated, while this year the number is estimated at 3.38 million, up by 20.71 per cent, statistics from the Ministry of Education (MOE) show.

"Our target this year is that 73 per cent of college graduates will be able to find a job, the same level as last year," said Liu Dawei, deputy director of the Student Administration Office of the MOE.

According to the country's labour and personnel ministries, a total of 9 million jobs are expected to be created this year, but 5 million of them will target laid-off workers, and a big part of the rest will meet the growing needs of migrant workers.

"As the number of college graduates is witnessing a sharp increase, students are faced with increasing employment pressure," Liu said.

Liu attributed the college graduates' difficulty to their high expectations. "Students are aiming too high. Most of them want to stay in the big cities and get jobs with high salaries. The already-crowded big cities cannot offer that many jobs, and thus students face difficulties."

On the other hand, remote areas or small work units where students are reluctant to go are lacking high-calibre staff.

A conflict has come into being that many graduates have failed to find jobs in big cities while higher-educated professionals are badly needed in the country's comparatively underdeveloped regions.

Yin, vice-minister of personnel, said that the problem is structural. "To solve the problem, we should relocate our human resources by encouraging college graduates to work in China's western and poor areas," Yin said.