Universities offering cash to students who find a job

Shanghai's universities are offering a variety of incentives such as subsidies for students willing to return to their hometowns to work amid a tough job market. This is meant to ensure a steady enrollment next year by pumping up the proportion of graduating students finding jobs.

Some schools say they will offer career training programs, including communication skills, to the students who failed to land a job.

Around 44 percent of 178,000 senior students at local universities and colleges had secured a job as of last week, 2 percentage points down from last year, the Shanghai Education Commission said yesterday.

The calculation excluded those who had been admitted to postgraduate studies, decided to study abroad or who were starting up their own businesses.

The rate of postgraduates and students with a bachelor's degree who had accepted offers fell 2.2 percent and 4 percent respectively, while junior college students, those finishing two or three-year programs, saw a rise of 1.2 percent, the commission said.

The city's universities said they were taking various measures to weather the negative impact.

Shanghai Dianji University is offering a transportation subsidy of up to 1,500 yuan (US$242) and a minimum 800 yuan each to senior students from outside the city who were willing to return to their hometown to work.

A 1,500 yuan subsidy is also offered to students setting up their own businesses. Incentives will also be offered to students admitted to postgraduate studies, the university said.

"It is the first time that we offer such subsidy in our history due to the poor employment prospects this year," said Yao Weichun, deputy director of the university's student affairs office. He said there had been a 6 percent drop in the number of students graduating with a bachelor's degree who had secured a job compared to last year.

Shanghai University said it had launched a training camp for students who had difficulty in finding a job to improve their competence and had talked to some parents who had extremely high demands for their children's employment and who had intervened in their children's choices and job applications.

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