Professional and Soft Skills of Chinese College Grads

Unprepared for professional job...except work at hair salon.

Stan Abrams of China Hearsay wrote a post about a China Daily survey which shows that recent college graduates think that they have not learned the professional skills that will help them succeed while in college. To this sentiment, Stan says, in so many words, “duh!”

Stan also notes (as most Westerners would agree) that a good liberal education is important. He did not say this, but I think his point is that a balanced education helps prepare the “thinking skills” of young people. He also points out that companies need to do a better job at training. And he also says:

All of this is somewhat beside the point, though. The main reasons for the huge unemployment rate in this population includes the large population bump in kids this age (a temporary phenomenon), a greater number of universities (i.e. relatively more grads), and an economy still recovering, in some sectors, from the recession.

I agree with everything Stan says here. But there are a few things I think I can add to this.

First of all, not to nit-pick but… is there really such huge unemployment in China now? Is unemployment of college graduates larger (as a percentage of population of graduates) than in the United States or elsewhere? I don’t know but I suspect not. In my incredibly objective opinion, I believe that a lot of this problem has to do with really spoiled kids who think they should get a lot more job offers and make a lot more money after school. I can’t blame the kids. They were taught this by their parents and by recent history.

Stan remarks that it is the responsibilities of businesses to help prepare recent graduates. This is obvious. However, my past experience¹ in China informs me that although all companies talk about the importance of training and personal development, most Chinese and post-economic-crash Western companies in China consistently undervalue and underfund soft-skills training. Most HR Managers and Senior Managers have no idea how to do training themselves. Few have actual training systems. Most companies (WOFE and Chinese) view training as a reward.

I can go on and on about this, but doing so brings up bad memories. Thank G_d I’m no longer a trainer.

Now…about education. One thing that I think is missing from the “liberal education” in China is sports. Its my (again very objective) opinion that if team sports where promoted at all Chinese high-schools, we would not be seeing this issue. Team sports teaches how to work in a team. It often teaches confidence. It often teaches basic leadership. And…team “honor”.

Stepping back further, I got to say that the education problem is not in the colleges. It starts at Grade 1. It starts with kids being allowed to be kids. It starts with children learning how to learn and be curious. This is the root-problem which the China Daily article (of course) does not address.