Tan Xiaomi

A LOCAL vocational college invited an independent market research company Friday to conduct a survey on the level of job satisfaction among its recent graduates.

The three-month-long third-party survey, which will involve 1,157 new graduates, parents and employers, is the first of its kind in China.

Huang Jingrong, vice president of the Shenzhen Senior Technical Institute (SSTI), said the survey will focus on graduates’ job satisfaction, how the employers rate their new employees, and how satisfied the graduates’ parents are with the college and their child’s job.

He said the college is hoping to obtain reliable information that will reflect its educational quality and career guidance.

“Feedback from students and their employers can help us to amend our works and ensure those who graduate in the next semester meet the employers’ requirement better,” said Huang.

He said the college will also consider adjusting its methodology and curriculum according to the results.

The survey will randomly interview 70 percent of its 610 new graduates and 60 percent of their employers, as well as 70 percent of the parents. The results are expected to be announced by the market research company in early February.

Li Deliang, president of the SSTI, said the requirements of, and feedback from, employers should determine the way courses are taught.

Graduates in China are facing an increasingly harsh job market, where hiring employers make difficult demands on potential employees. SSTI’s survey is aimed at reducing the gulf between the graduates’ qualifications and employers’ requirements.

The country’s leading employment agency and consultant 51job.com released a nationwide survey early this year, saying that 55 percent of the 58,665 interviewees from 27 provinces have a 1,000 (US$125) to 2,000 yuan monthly salary, and only 2.4 percent of new graduates received over 5,000 yuan per month.

“Over 70 percent of the 5,800 companies that recruited graduates last year told us their new comers’ performance was ‘merely average,’” the survey said.