THE RESEARCH ISSUE
closing the gaps: ADDRESSING THE EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGES OF CHINESE GRADUATES Xuan Feng, Director of Personal and Career Development & Assistant Professor in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, and Martin Lockett, Dean & Professor in Strategic Management, are based at Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) China. Here, they share findings from ongoing research, which has unearthed discrepancies in students’ perceptions of employability skills and attributes and what employers value in practice.
A
decade or two ago, foreign graduates from mainland China were rare and highly sought after by domestic and international firms; good jobs were easy to find and a foreign degree had a distinct advantage. Today, with the rise in the number of overseas returnees and the increased global competitiveness of domestic university graduates, holding a foreign degree no longer guarantees Chinese graduates brighter employment prospects once they return home from overseas study. Moreover, despite sustained economic growth, China is facing a relative economic slowdown as well as local and global challenges from Covid-19. All of these factors make it more challenging for Chinese international graduates seeking work in China, or in overseas subsidiaries of Chinese multinational companies, to land a satisfactory job. Logistical reasons can explain some of the employment challenges, such as the time gap between overseas students’ graduation season and the job-seeking season in China. Students and universities’ unfamiliarity with the domestic job market are another factor. However, we have found a deeper cause: gaps in understanding between employers and students, notably discrepancies between the skills and attributes employers look for and those which graduates focus on developing.
RESEARCH PLAN Starting in late 2018, we launched an extensive research project to compare student and employer perceptions of the most important employability skills and
28
PHOENIX JUNE 2020
