Higher degree graduates face battle in job market(2)

Meanwhile, employers have become more rational and less picky about education degrees.

"Except for certain research posts, we don't require employees to have a master's or a Ph.D. degree; what really matters are their practical skills," said a staff member from the human resources department of Baidu.com, China's top search engine.

In an industrial park in Jiangxi's Jinxian County, scores of young graduates with technical school diplomas boast a monthly salary of 6,000 yuan (960.6 U.S. dollars), and such skilled workers are still thin on the ground there.

Employers interviewed by Xinhua reporters said that they like to hire undergraduate job candidates who "have higher work efficiency" than those with master's or Ph.D degrees, as the latter focus more on research than practical work. Undergraduates are also less prone to job-hopping.

CHANGE OF MENTALITY NEEDED

As the cream of the crop face pressure in the job market, experts have suggested a change in their mentality to tackle the quandary.

Liao Mingbo said that soon-to-graduate college students should adjust their expectations, stop being too picky and focus on how to excel in their posts.

Zhao Min, head of the enrollment and employment office at East China Jiaotong University in Jiangxi Province, said that China should slow down the mindless expansion of higher education and that universities need to take market needs into consideration to adjust their enrollment plans and curricula.

"Universities should beef up efforts to cultivate students' practical skills as well as soft skills such as critical thinking, innovative thinking, communication and decision-making, rather than just the technical know-how," Zhao said.

China has accelerated the reform of postgraduate education in recent years, dividing it into academic and professional types. Academic education aims to foster students' research abilities, while the professional type focuses on improving students' practical and innovative abilities.

Liao added that that the country should create more jobs in the service sector to avoid too much underemployment. He said that universities should popularize and strengthen career development guidance schemes among students to help them discover a suitable career path and instruct them to realize their goals step by step.