Abstract
Research on the Strategy of Employability Improvement
in the Context of Dual Transformation
Xiangquan Zeng
Abstract
China is experiencing a period of dual transformation， that is， the transformation of industrial structure from traditional agriculture to modern industrialization， and the second of these changes is an economic system transformation from a planned economy to a market economy. Therefore， the structural contradictions in labor market and resulting problems concerning the improvement of employability are presented more starkly in this context than in any others.On the basis of questionnaire survey， in-depth interview and reference to various literature and data， this thesis carries out systematic theoretical analysis， empirical research and policy evaluation on the issue of employability improvement of in-service staffs， students， veterans， rural migrant workers and the unemployed people. The basic conclusions are as follows： First， employability is a constantly changing concept whose meaning is enriched and expanded as labor market conditions change. As indicated in both domestic and international studies， the concept of employability can be divided into “hard skills” and “soft skills” categories， with the latter one attracting extensive academic attention. Second， the improvement of entrepreneurial capacity has been an essential part of the development strategy that promotes job creation and encourages entrepreneurs to create more employment opportunities. Third， the awareness of career management of in-service staff is increasing， which makes the improvement of their employability a focal point to both organizations and individuals. Fourth， employees' employability can be enhanced through well-designed motivation systems such as skill-based pay， which also contribute to organization performance. Fifth， non-school vocational education enjoys a wide distribution and has a high rate of return to education， especially for technician certificates or higher level. This is a result of a serious shortage of technicians in current labor market. Sixth， college graduates employability has a substantial impact on their employment conditions and starting salary. Higher employability not only improves graduates' employment conditions,but also enhances the skill-work matching efficiency and increases graduates' starting salary. Nevertheless， there's a gap between labor market requirement and higher education system such as school training purposes， teaching contents and teaching team. This has become a universal problem in China's colleges， universities and vocational-technical schools. As a result， differences exist in the understanding of employability between graduates and employers. Seventh， according to our research， it is an essential policy choice to understand the employment demand of veterans and provide employability training program to veterans of various levels， positions and job demands. Only in this way can we connect their employability development with the vocational qualifications authentication system. Finally， we find that increasing human resource investment in groups such as rural migrant workers and unemployed workers has been an issue of great significance. Therefore， it is necessary to formulate a national strategy of labor employability improvement that contributes to the development of Chinese human resource in the context of dual transformation.
Key words： Dual Transformation,Employability,Employment Strategies
Ⅰ Research Backgrounds
It is commonly acknowledged that while China is blessed with abundant human resources， it also faces severe problems due to great employment pressure. However， with the rapid development of Chinese economy， a great number of vacancies are created and the current shortage of skilled workers and rural migrant workers has given rise to a hot debate on the issue of whether the “Lewis Turning-Point”has turned up. However， in current labor market， many job seekers including college graduates fail to find work， which results in the ever increasing unemployment rate. In a word， China is facing the problem of high natural unemployment rate with structural unemployment being an important manifestation of current unemployment condition.
There're two reasons that lead to structural unemployment. One is structural transformation from agriculture to industrialization， which requires a new structure of labor supply. Like other developing countries and areas， structural unemployment will inevitably arise when economy develops to a certain stage. The other reason for structural unemployment is the transition from a planned economy to a market economy. China used to have a centrally planned economy system. The planned training and education system derived from long-term planned economy had a poor ability to respond quickly to change. As a result， although the accelerating structural transition sets new requirement of knowledge， skills and abilities of labor force， the adjustment of labor supply structure remained slow. These lead to a fact that the quality and ability of incoming labor force can not meet the demand of social and economic development. According to a report made by McKinsey， the number of newly trained engineers is around 1.6 million， 9 times as many as that of USA， among which only 0.16 million have the practical skills and linguistic skills required by multinational companies (McKinsey， 2005) .
Employability (including entrepreneurial capacity) is like a bridge that connects job enlargement with modern economic development and acts as an important catalyst for sustainable economic growth. Although theoretical analysis and empirical researches on this topic are increasingly getting the attention of international academia， current studies in China on this subject are limited. Hence， it is our mission to call for researches on this subject and present our achievements on it from the following aspects： First， we give theoretical explanation of the meaning of employability and identify the relationship between employability and employment strategy. Then，we attach great importance to definitions， values and upgrade mechanism of both cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills. After that， we discuss the relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and enterprise performance and further the relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and enterprise education. We also study the improvement of in-service staffs' employability through effective career management and employability promotion mechanism for college students and technical school students that leads to high efficiency of human capital investment. When it comes to special groups such as veterans， rural migrant workers and unemployed people， we focus on improvement of their training system in order to strengthen the training effect and promote the enforcement of employability improvement strategy that adapts to structural transformation and market competition. All of these are main themes of this report.
On the basis of questionnaire survey， in-depth interview and reference to various literature and data， this thesis reviews researches on cognitive skills， non-cognitive skills and entrepreneurial capacity， and carries out empirical researches on career management of in-service staffs and the effect of professional accreditation on the improvement of employability. In addition， we discuss the employability development of college students and vocational school students. We also make a deeply and systematic analysis on the employability of veterans， rural migrant workers and the long-term unemployed. We hope that our research would add new contents to existing research of employability and provide beneficial suggestions on the strategy of employability improvement in the context of dual transformation.
Ⅱ Employability： the Evolvement of the Concept and Promotion Mechanism
i The Evolvement of the Concept
Employability has a clear definition in English， which is the possibility of employment for a job seeker in the labor market. This notion was first introduced in the early 20th century， when it was defined as dichotomic employability. At that time， a person was considered as having employability if he could find a job immediately after being laid off (Beveridge，1909). In the mid 1950s， the focus of employability was transferred to the lower class (Feintuch， 1955).With this， three new connotations of employability were put forward： social-medical employability， manpower policy employability and flow employability. This had broadened the extension of the concept. In the late 1970s， transferable skills began to receive attention. It included skills such as social and relational skills. This connotation of employability was described as labor market performance(Gazier，1999). In the early 1980s， the research emphasizing on employability was transferred to an enterprise level. It had become a meta-characteristic of employees that was required by employers. In the mid 1980s， the connotation of employability as meta-characteristic involved elements such as attitude， knowledge and skills， which was seen as decisive factors for labor market performance. Studies on employability in the 1990s not only focused on the unemployed and the low skilled， but also on other groups. The scope of that concept was extended to labor market situation， labor market knowledge and enterprise policies as well. Studies during that period put emphasis on the potential skills and career planning abilities of individuals (Berntson， 2008). Employability was constituted by a series of individual characteristic and labor market opportunities， which was called interactive employability (Gazier， 2001； McQuaid & Lindsay， 2005)， hinting that employability promotion has become a common duty of governments， employers， enterprises and individuals. Interactive employability was in association with environmental factors and personal skills， which has a connotation of dynamic abilities of getting first job placement， maintaining jobs and regaining jobs after being laid off (Hillage & Pollard， 1998).
Pragmatically and comprehensiveness are two main features of employability connotation in the 21st century. The employability model on the basis of competence and labor market has developed. This development emphasizes on three requirements， namely dynamics， continuous learning and unceasing development. Continuous professional development and life long learning are most closely tied to employability. The employability model on the basis of competence covers both general skills and professional skills and highlights the feature of pragmatically and individual needs with consideration for enterprises， which plays a constructive role in professional success and high organizational performance. The concept model not only meets the need of the moment， but also provides condition for future development. Since the 21st century， the trend of defining employability from a broad perspective is distinct. Employability has been divided into two parts： internal employability and external employability. International researchers have summarized the development of employability in theory as sown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 The Evolution of the Concept of Employability
ii Employability Upgrading Mechanism
Employability can be divided into two categories， one is hard skills， known as cognitive skills, and the other is soft skills， known as non-cognitive skills. Generally speaking， hard skills can be enhanced by constant practice and intensive training， which is under no essential dispute in theory. The question is that soft skills are subtle and unpredictable， which in turn makes things complex. Under the circumstance of industrial structure transformation， soft skills become the research emphasis in the field of employment.
The reason why soft skills have become one of the main research emphases in the field of employment comes from several aspects. First is that in modern society， teamwork is becoming more important. Knowledge and skills are not enough for one to create performance through team work. Soft skills such as communication skills， teamwork capacity and ability to express oneself play a significant part in improving teamwork performance. Second， the formation and development of hard skills depend on the development of soft skills. Skill formation is a dynamic process， which consists of essential factors that interact with each other. The development of soft skills encourages the formulation of hard skills and contributes to final success. Third， lacking soft skills has become one of the employability gaps for employees， unemployed people and other groups such as college students (Flavio Cunha and James Heckman，2007;Niu Ling，2007;Wang Ting，2009). Fourth， soft skills have recessive characteristics that are subtle and difficult to observe and evaluate. As a result， the development system and training approach need further research and study.
The pyramid model of soft skills shows that soft skills can be divided into three layers： application layer， practice layer and talent layer. Soft skills in the application layer are the closest to hard skills， which refer to soft skills that provide support for hard skills to fulfill tasks. Communication skills， interpersonal skills and analytical skills are soft skills in case. Application skills are closely related to work tasks and hence different jobs require different application skills. Soft skills in the practice layer， however， mean a series of mental abilities that need long-term accumulation and practice. Generally， soft skills in practice layer are difficult to observe and measure， which should be identified through a period of long duration. Typical examples of soft skills in the practice layer are sense of responsibility， motivation and service consciousness. Soft skills in the talent layer refer to some deep level skills that are inherent. Usually,skills in talent layer， such as intuition， aesthetic perception and personalities， cannot be observed and measured directly and are also hard to be changed and shaped. According to research， individual skill gaps (both cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills) keep on broadening in their childhood. Skill levels of children have high correlation with their family backgrounds. And most of the cognitive and non-cognitive skills are formulated in one's childhood (Flavio Cunha and James Heckman，2007).
The formation mechanism of soft skills shows that soft skills in different layers are not isolated with each other. They have a relationship of sequential decision. The development of skills in the talent layer determines the formation of soft skills in the practice layer， and the skills in the practice layer enhance the development of skills in the application layer. Skills in the layer of application will improve the soft skills in the practice layer and skills in talent layer as well， although the effect is much weaker. The formation mechanism of soft skills are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 The Formation Mechanism of Soft Skills
Methods of improving soft skills include human capital investments in sensitivity training， situational coaching， increasing motivation and developing systems that strengthen the formation of skills. In addition， systematic planning of a national education system is an important way to cultivate soft skills for the whole society.
iii Definition and Composition of Entrepreneurial Capacity
The concept of entrepreneurial capacity was first introduced in literature concerning the relationship between entrepreneurs and organizational performance. Capability was emphasized in research concerning organizational performance. It was shown that a series of entrepreneurial characteristics would contribute to high performance. It was also indicated that these characteristics also interact with each other. Since 1980s， the field of entrepreneurial capacity has experienced two major periods. In the early studies， scholars tried to identify the individual characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. However， these researches were scattered and lack of studies on the interaction between elements. In the 1990s， researchers put forward two combinations of elements that made up entrepreneurial capacity. Studies on the basis of characteristics， capacities and knowledge focused on elements such as personalities， attitudes， skills， knowledge and experiences. These studies on entrepreneurs' behavior paid close attention to behaviors that reflected capacity. Competence was seen as variable， cognitive and measurable， which was considered as a bridge that linked individuals with enterprises.
Studies have shown that opportunity competence， relationship competence， strategic competence， commitment competence and conceptual competence are the most important entrepreneurial capacities， shown in Table 1. There are some abilities that contribute to the formation and strengthening of other abilities. These abilities include learning ability， adaptability， time management， self-evaluation， work and life balance， crisis management and integrity (Man，2000).
Table 1 Composition of Entrepreneurial Capacity
(continued)
Note： Constructed by the author on the basis of researches done by Man et al.(2000， 2001).
Two tasks should be fulfilled in the process of building business. One is identifying， discovering and developing opportunities. The other is operating and managing new enterprises. According to this and on the basis of literature review， theoretical analysis and empirical studies， some Chinese experts have reconstructed the concept of entrepreneurial capacity， dividing it into two categories： opportunity competence注1 and operating competence注2. According to their studies， a conceptual model of entrepreneurial capacity that falls into two broad categories and six sub-categories was constructed as illustrated in Figure 3 (Tang Jing， Jiang Yan Fu， 2008).
Man(2000， 2001) studied the relations between individual characteristics of entrepreneurs and organizational performance by integrating model of entrepreneurial capacity and model of mid and small sized enterprises competency. Through qualitatively analyzing employees of Hong Kong service industries， they constructed a relatively well-organized theoretical model that explained the relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and organization performance as shown in Figure 4.
The relationship between entrepreneurial capacity and organization performance is connected by different work tasks. Each task requires a specific field of competence as shown in Table 2.
Figure 3 Conceptual Employability Model with Two Broad Categories and Six Sub-categories
Figure 4 Relations between Entrepreneurial Capacity and Organization Performance
Table 2 Abilities Required in Different Stages of Building Business
The promotion effect that enterprise education has on the entrepreneurial capacity has been widely recognized both in theory and practice. In addition， the introduction of entrepreneurial capacity provides a powerful theoretical basis for research and practice on enterprise education. The concept of entrepreneurial capacity not only includes abilities注3 based on personal background， which are difficult to change， but also include abilities注4 that can be shaped and developed through training and education. It is also proved that entrepreneurial capacity can be improved through proper enterprise education and training， which will initiate entrepreneurial behaviors， increase the possibility of business success and contribute to enterprises performance. Beside these， entrepreneurial capacity also has an effect on entrepreneurial education.
Ⅲ Career Management， Wage Incentives， Qualification Recognition and Employability
i Career Development and Management
When it comes to employability improvement， the employability of current labor force should be given the first priority. In line with economic structural adjustment， the demand for employability of in-service staff is on the increase. Work environment has been evolving and employment opportunities and forms are harder to predict and more variable. Under the new employment environment， people are managers of their own careers and more commonly experience careers comprised of many positions cross multiple organizations and even industries. Organizations should increase the force of human capital investment and individuals should take efforts to promote their employability development and manage their careers effectively.
Researches targeting China's human resource professionals indicate that some in-service people are now taking efforts to manage their careers. This includes labor market activities such as collecting vacancies information， building social network and tapping human resource capital， developing working plans and preparing for future changes. Effective career management does not vary with the gender. Through correlation studies on internal development opportunities for employees and organizational career management， researchers found that employees tend to seek internal development opportunities in those companies that provide employees with career development paths. The results are presented in Table 3.
Table 3 Relationship between Internal Development Opportunities for
Employees and Organization Career Management
Note：* p < 0.05，** p < 0.01.
Sub-items of organization career management are shown as follows： ocm_a means succession management； ocm_b stands for employee assessment； ocm_c stands for training and development.
The correlation study also indicates that there exists a manifest correlation between individual career management and his tendency to seek jobs in external labor market. The results can be seen in Table 4.
Table 4 Correlation between Individual Career Management and Their Tendency to Seek
Jobs in External Labor Market
Note：* p< 0.01.
Sub-items of individual career management are shown as follows： icm_a stands for collecting information of job opportunities； icm_b stands for social networking； icm_c stands for intensifying individual human capital； icm_d stands for career planning and preparing for future work.
Although correlation analysis shows no correlation between individual career management and enterprise career management， a positive correlation exists between icm_a and ocm， icm_a and ocm_c， and between icm_b and ocm_a as well. Details of the results are shown in Table 5.
Table 5 Correlation between Individual Career Management and Enterprise Career Management
Note：* p < 0.05，** p< 0.01.
It is indicated that the career path of human resource professionals in China is experiencing a tremendous change in the new situation. For an individual， self-career-management behaviors of the respondents are close to the international level， which play a positive role for them to seize the career opportunities and achieve their career goals. As to enterprises， targeting career management plays a more or less positive role in retaining talents. In addition， when employees are well aware of self-career management， enterprises can consider reaching a consensus with their employees for employment security.
If enterprises intend to retain some talents， they can send this message to their employees through the method of career management. This will help them make psychological contracts with their employees and contribute to talent retaining. At the same time， if companies cannot promise employment stability to their employees， they need to convey this situation to their employees. In this situation， companies should consider improving their employees' employability and enhancing their employment security through effective career management.
ii Wage Incentive
Introducing the effective skill-based pay system will stimulate the organization's ability to cultivate the enterprise interior skilled worker and the skill talented person， which has a practical significance in alleviating employment pressure， reducing the structural unemployment and promoting the employment quality gradually. The research on several enterprises that carried out the skill-based pay schemes indicate that although the different skill-based pay have differences respectively at the success or failure， they have the consistent application effect on enhancing human resources elasticity， reducing accidents， improving the quality of product (or service)， screening appropriate staff and making better plan of staff's career development as well as skill level promotion and so on，as shown in Table 6.
Table 6 The Implementation Effect of Case Enterprises Applying Skill-based Pay
(continued)
Source：This table is completed after coding， recording and reorganizing according to the qualitative data in the NVivo database.
Under the skill-based pay， the enhancement of staff's skill level， particularly the fast raise of high skill staff can not only support the production of high difficulty， but also enable them to adapt the new working routine， which is helpful to enhance the human resources elasticity in the spot of production or service. Under the skill-based pay， the control of accident rate and request of quality standards are usually taken seriously as the essential condition in the staff skill promotion by the staff.In addition， the skill level enhancement are highly related with the quality promotion of product (service)， which is helpful to reduce the bad accident in the production (service) scene and improve product (or service) quality. In the process of implementing the skill-based pay， the salary decision-making will influence the staff troop's constitution through the attraction， the choice and the elimination process and the staff's own compatible judgment under the skill-based pay will further strengthen the salary separation effect， which will be helpful for the enterprise to screen the appropriate staff and optimize the personnel structure. Under the skill-based pay， by designing skill channel conformable to the staff operating feature will on the one hand help the staff understand how to grow in the enterprise， on the other hand help the enterprise reasonably formulate staff's training and development plan according to the distribution of the effective strength's skill， which are beneficial for the enterprise to make the plan of staff's career development based on the organization development goal. If further considering the case enterprises' overall judgment on effect of the implementation of the skill-based pay， only considering these successful skill wages case， the application of skill wages can also raise staff's skill level， speed up the raise of new staff， cut the staff flow rate， transfer the staff's enthusiasm to raise the skill level， enhance training system's effect， obtain on own initiative of employment in the labor market， and in more aspects have tangible effect regarding the promoting employability promotion.
Enterprise's organization characteristic， the skill-based pay's design characteristic， the skill-based pay's implementation characteristic， the organization resources' guarantee， staff's initiative are five factors affecting the effect of skill wages. Analysis of the organization characteristic indicates that compared with traditional service industry， technology-intensive manufacturing industry is more suitable to use skill-based pay； the enterprise with higher non-standardization degree of production (or service) pattern has more advantage when applying skill-based pay； compared with the enterprises emphasizing centralization and supervisory control， those putting emphasis on the authorization and participation in the organization culture are more suitable to apply skill-based pay. As for the skill-based pay's design characteristic， designing the skill module based on the existing skill content， and simultaneously properly processing the crosswise value comparison between the different modules help to enhance the implementation effect of skill-based pay； setting explicit skill growth period helps to strengthen staff's initiative under skill-based pay and reinforce the separation effect which the skill-based pay brings. As for the skill-based pay's implementation characteristic， guaranteeing the fairness of skill authentication， enhancing staff's participation degree and carrying on the full communication can promote to form the cognition that the salary is fair； authoring the straight line manager is helpful to promote their approval of the skill-based pay， and can reduce the basic unit personnel's restless mood in transformation process effectively， as well as enhancing the direction of the training content and the training organization's planning also help to enhance the implementation effect of skill-based pay. In addition， sufficient resources safeguard provided by the organization and staff's initiative under skill-based pay will influence the implementation effect of skill-based pay. In the implementation process of skill-based pay， the organization providing sufficient training and authentication resources is advantageous in strengthening staff's cognition level of salary fairness， enhancing staff's initiative under skill-based pay， promoting the staff to seek for skill training opportunity on own initiative and participate in skill training and the skill authentication positively， then enhancing the incentive of skill-based pay.
iii Qualifications Authentication
Carrying out national occupational qualification certificates is the important content of labor employment policy in our country， and is also the fundamental mode of the worker non-school record vocational education， which has great significance to strengthen the training of the skilled personnel， promote worker's employability and so on. The research on the relationship between the national occupational qualification certificates and technical worker's skill level， work performance， the income as well as the employability based on 6 manufacture enterprises' microscopic data investigation shows that the national occupational qualification certificates and technical worker's skill level are positively related， and the higher the certificate rank， the more obvious the relevance. A worker with occupational qualification certificates above high-level labor has better work performance and employability. Compared with the non-card worker， the primary and the intermediate labor certificate can increase approximately 9.5% incomes，the high-level labor certificate can increase approximately 11% incomes， and the certificate above the technician level increases the income even to about24%. On the whole， the return rate from the national occupational qualification certificates is quite obvious， particularly the occupational qualification certificates of the high rank.
As shown in Table 7， forecast on worker's skill level， the work performance， the income as well as the employability according to the occupational qualification certificates above the technician is especially obvious， in comparison， the proper difference between primary labor， intermediate labor and high-level labor is weak. In recent years， the proportion obtaining the intermediate labor and the high-level labor occupational qualification certificates rises largely， while the proportion obtaining the primary labor certificate drops obviously. This situation doesn't equate the universal rise of worker's skill level in our country， but because some skill accrediting body's check to the intermediate labor， the high-level labor occupational qualification certificates is lax so that the practical skill of some workers having obtained the intermediate labor， the high-level labor certificate is no better than that of the primary labor， which in the end has reduced the validity of occupational qualification certificates. However， at present the management of the rank credential above the technician is relatively strict， therefore the technician certificate has demonstrated the good validity in the labor market. This research has also discovered some other meaningful conclusions in our country's labor market. For instance， the masculine worker's wages are obviously higher than the feminine worker's wages； the wages of workers with the local registered permanent address are obviously higher than that of workers with the outside areas registered permanent address； worker's skill level， work performance and income all present the parabola tendency which rises first then drops with the job seniority increasing and so on.
Table 7 Regression between Wage Income and Employability
(continued)
Note： *,**,*** respectively represents the significance in 10%，5%和1%. Firm1 is the reference company； Edu1(middle school record) is the reference school record； L0(without) credentials is the reference level.L2/1 represents technician and senior technician credentials， because the senior technician certificate's sample size is small， therefore merging the technician merges to make regression. In the model 3， Firm1 is reference firm， and Firm2 lacks the salary data.
Ⅳ. The Employability Condition and the Cognition Difference of the University Student and the Professional School Students
i University Students
Our country's higher education scale has continued to increase in the past 10 years， with the number of university graduates increasing from 1 080 000 in 1998 to 6 110 000 in 2009 and 2008 gross matriculation rate having reached 23.3%.注5 Along with the sudden expansion of higher education and the rapid transformation of graduates' supply and demand condition， the bearing capacity of the “ecology position” (niche)注6 of graduate labor market can be saturated instantly both in “the quality” and in “the quantity”， leading to the sharp growth of employment difficulty. As is shown in the research， the primary reason why the graduate has a difficulty getting employed is that their ability cannot meet the labor market requirement. The increase in the quantity of graduates merely aggravating the difficulties posed by a fierce job market； however， the fundamental reason for the difficulty in graduates' employment is the insufficient employability.
With Shandong Province graduates survey data in 2007， we empirically examined the effects of graduate employability and internship on the probability of initial employment and the level of starting salary， and investigated the determinant factor of employability.Evidence indicates that employability has significantly positive effects on initial employment and starting salary， that is to say， employability not only promotes employment， but also helps the graduate find “jobs for the university student” (high salary jobs)， raising the skill - work match efficiency，As Table 8 and Table 9 show.
Table 8 Boundary Effect of Employability in Employment Probability
Note： (1) The superscript brings a is the dummy variable， corresponding coefficient representing the influence of dummy variable from 0 to 1 on employment probability.
(2) * represents 5% significance levels， **represents 1% significance levels.
Table 9 The Influence of Employability on Graduates' Monthly Salary Cash Income
(continued)
The empirical study also discovered that major-related internship can improve employability and for the more， it has a significant independent effect on graduate employment， which is consistent with Mason et al.'s (2009) research. However， the internship and career guidance that has nothing to do with the major increase the employment probability indirectly through the improvement of employability. The empirical results are shown in Table 10.
Table 10 The OLS Regression Result of Employability Influencing Factors
(continued)
The research also indicated that the internship， the career guidance and service do not have the remarkable influence on the graduate starting salary. The gender difference and school types are the main factors influencing the graduate employment and the starting salary. Since it is unable to measure the employability accurately， employers are prone to employ the graduates from the university “211” and the male graduate who are supposed to have higher average ability. Since capacity varies from one individual to another， taking the sex and the school type as recruitment standards will not only lower the allocate efficiency of the labor market， but also make the female graduate and the graduates not from the university “211” suffer from statistical discrimination， thus aggravating employment difficulties.
Through the depth interview with the China Oilfield Services Limited about employment capacity demand as well as questionnaire surveys of more than 500 students， our research discovered： first， although hard skills and soft skills in the application layer注7 are increasingly required by work responsibility， soft skills in the practice layer and the talent layer like sense of responsibility， incentives to achievement， are even more important in the operational site. Second， the university students' cognition of employability differs from the enterprise demand. The research indicated that the university students and the enterprise have remarkably different cognitions regarding the sense of responsibility， the oral power of expression， and the incentives to achievement， foreign language ability and the written ability. Among various essential factors in employability model， sense of responsibility is considered as the most important by employers and leadership has the lowest important average value. In contrast， students consider the ability of problem solving to be the most important and the innovation ability to be the least important. At the same time， the employer side thought that the sense of responsibility， the professional dedication， the speaking ability， learning capability， and the ability of problem solving are the most important abilities. Foreign language ability， computer capacity， innovation ability， management and supervision ability and leadership are the least important items. On the contrary， the undergraduate students thought the ability of problem solving， foreign language ability， plan-coordinating ability， learning capability， computer capacity are the most important abilities， while five lowest important abilities respectively are crisis strain capacity， the incentives to achievement， the written power of expression， leadership and management surveillance ability. Although the enterprise pays more and more attention to staff's soft skills such as sense of responsibility， human communication ability and learning capability， the student actually thought that these abilities are less important compared with the knowledge， foreign language ability and the computer capacity， which demonstrated that the university student and employer's cognition differences about soft skill already appears quite prominent. Third， the research found that student's practice time assumes the inverse correlation related to the student's cognition difference in employability， specifically， student with longer practice time has less cognition differences in employability with the enterprise. Internship is the fundamental learning approach that teaches university students about real life； by working in the enterprise， students may deepen their cognition regarding working conditions， work responsibility and work requirement， thus understand enterprise's demand for employability， appraise and develop correctly individual special characteristic advantageous to work， develop communication and interactive ability， and establish the career plan and the development strategy. Fourth， the teachers are the main characters to decide the curriculum system， the course content， and educational model. There is a great diversity of teachers in China's applied-type universities. Also， universities attach great importance to teachers' practical work experience. Research on the constitution of petroleum engineering teachers in three petroleum universities indicated that most of these specialized teachers come directly from universities without practice experience. It also shown that the teaching method and the course content can hardly satisfy the practical work.
Through the investigation of course designs， the teaching and training programs of human resources management in 42 colleges and universities， as well as the analysis of university students' self-perceived employability， and of some human resources management practitioner， it is discovered that although the human resources management programs in domestic universities have contained the main function of traditional human resources management completely， new responsibilities of human resources management practitioners have not yet been paid enough attention to so that the curriculum system and the school teaching activity can not help settle problems posed by new challenges of human resources management. Different types of universities have teaching problems such as repeated setting and convergence in curriculum， no clear specialty orientation， which is not conducive to promoting the university students' employability. As for the appraisal of the importance of the human resources management curriculum， human resources management practitioner stressed the utility of the curriculum， as well as the function that teaching practice and the practice have on promoting the university students' employability. In the aspect of self-perceived employability， the university students speak highly of their comprehensive quality， particularly their own communication skill with the highest appraisal while give the lowest appraisal to their own professional skill； as to the satisfaction of the professional training programs， the university student is quite satisfied with the training goals， teacher's teaching level， major-related academic activities and debating championships and essay contests held by their colleges and universities. However， they are unsatisfied with the career guidance. In view of the above， all the points below should be taken into consideration when making policies and strategies in the future. First， it is necessary to pay attention to the demand of the society and continually adjust the curriculum system. Second， universities should be clear about the specialized orientation and fully manifest the school's characteristic in order to keep up with the international trend. Third， we should improve the training programs and enrich the curriculum system while paying equal attention to the integrative competence and the professional skill， so that to cultivate human resources management graduates with potential.
ii The Professional School Students
Recent years， the structural unemployment in our country is prominent， and also has an effect on the vocational education. Therefore， training students according to the market demand becomes the important target of the development of the vocational education. Research on essential factors of students' employability of the vocational-technical school in transportation indicated that among the essential factors of students' employability， operative skills are the most important. But the most prominent problems of vocational-technical school students are unclear self-positioning， bad practice-handling ability and bad duplicate adaptive ability. In addition， non-cognition skills， like the sense of responsibility， teamwork， work initiative， honesty also suffer these defects. Vocational-technical schools specialized in transportation can not keep pace with the actual demand of the enterprise in the aspects of teaching goal， course content as well as teachers constitution. Big difference exists between students and the employers in their perception of students' employability， which is the basic reason for the employability gap of the students in the vocational-technical schools, As shown in Table 11.
Table 11The Comparison of “the Most Important Five Skills” Chosen by the
Vocational-Technical School and Business Employer
(continued)
In brief， it appears especially urgent for the vocational-technical education to take “training the students' employability” as the targets of development and fundamentally enhance the efficiency of school.
Ⅴ Employability of Veteran， Rural Migrant Workers and the Unemployed
i Veteran
It should be noticed that through the military training， soldiers have numerously unique， distinct and high-level non-cognition skills， such as perfect political quality and fine attitude to work， the sense of responsibility and professional dedication， reliable group consciousness and team spirit， firm and unyielding tenacious will， obedient consciousness and so on. But the question is after the serviceman leaves the army and then takes part in the construction of the economy and the society， the market and the battlefield naturally display different requests for the talented person's knowledge and the skill structure. Although the veteran has the good political quality and military skill， the specialized knowledge and the basic skill do not get the advantage obviously compared with other social group and the veterans' employability can not match the market demand， which intensified the competition situation when veteran enter the labor market.
To improve the employability of veterans， international experience can be used as reference. The US government makes laws in view of the serviceman's characteristic in different periods， supports veteran serviceman's education and training， and sets up the specialized agency responsible for the veteran serviceman's employment business， consciously increases the training of the general knowledge and skill in service period to lay a firm foundation for the serviceman's employability. Russia government pays great attention to the construction of the laws and regulations， reduces the human factors influencing the serviceman's veteran and placement system， and provides the preferential benefit to the veteran serviceman； the government leads the training of the veteran servicemen， combining with the relative colleges and universities， the training organization and the social group to provide the employment training and the service for the serviceman and so on. Japan insists that the army and the government cooperate closely， forming veteran serviceman's re-employment network with sound organization and close cooperation， adopts the training form combining the training inside the army and outside the army， provides different training content according to soldiers' different duties and branches of the armed forces and so on. India pays great attention to the serviceman's employability training and so on.
The research indicated the following several aspects of work that should be done to enhance serviceman's employability. First， the country must transform the role from job placement's main body to the leader of improving serviceman's employability. It is included that making laws and regulations of serviceman's employability training， institutionally providing the guarantee for serviceman's employability formation, establishing special organization responsible for developing the veterans' employability, and the government as the leader， integrates， releases and impels each kind of training resources， and introduces the market factor to the training of the serviceman's employability and so on. Second， perfect the training mechanism of the serviceman's employability， to promote the employability promotion by training. This will include extending the training through the serviceman's entire career， from the service until the primary employment； understanding promptly serviceman's employment demand， and applying target-oriented employability training in view of the different rank， the different duty， the different employment demand； impelling veterans' employability development to connect with the systems such as vocational skill authentication and so on. Third， advance “the Chinese characteristic military officer professionalism system” safely and positively and so on.
ii Rural Migrant Workers
The rural migrant workers is a unique feature of Chinese labor market system， having intense historical trace and the characteristic brought by the city and countryside isolation system， has accomplished the competitive power superiority of Chinese industry through the by-business and the low cost， and also becomes the biggest source of China industrial worker community. It has become urgent to provide the qualified technical worker for the economic development by enlarging the human resource investment in the surplus rural labor and developing professional technical training. Therefore， Chinese government has released many programs one after another aiming at improving rural migrant workers' employability， including the sunlight project， the employment skill development plan of the rural labor force， the rain-and-dew project and so on. Tens of billions RMB fiscal subsidies are invested in public training programs every year. It has become an important research topic that whether these training projects with huge investment are effective， and whether they have promoted farmers' employability and increased their income.
The regression analysis of the training effect of some trainees in the sunlight project in the Henan Province indicated that the training has a remarkable positive impact on the training effect， the employability enhancement， and the work status improvement,as shown in Table 12.
Table 12The Regression Result of the Controlled Variable， the Training
Implementation to the Training Effect
(continued)
Note： * expresses that regression coefficient is significant when p<0.05. ** expresses that regression coefficient is significant when p<0.01.*** expresses that regression coefficient is significant when p<0.001.
The multiple regression analysis indicated that “implementation of training”， “training hardware”， and“teacher quality” have remarkable positive effects in the employability promotion and the work status improvement， among which “training hardware” has the biggest influence on the training effect， as Table 12 and Table 13 show.
Table 13 The Regression Result of the Teachers' Condition， the Training Hardware Condition
to Training Effect，the Employability Promotion and the Work Status Improvement
Note：* expresses that regression coefficient is significant when p<0.05. ** expresses that regression coefficient is significant when p<0.01.*** expresses that regression coefficient is significant when p<0.001.
Although the sunlight project has made certain progress， it still has some problems. For instance， trainers' appraisals of training aids equipment， training materials， and training time are not high. It is discovered that trainees think that training time is short and the training aids are old， which are not in favor of employability promotion through the open questions of the questionnaires. Moreover， the participant feel that although the sunlight project has strengthened their self-confidence， increased their knowledge， and promoted their technical level， it does not help much in obtaining a higher income， improving working mode and promoting working efficiency.
iii The Long-term Unemployed
The solution to the problem of the long-term unemployed people's employment is directly related to the harmonious society developing， and employability is the key aspect determining whether the long-term unemployed will be re-employed. Based on literature review， we have carried on questionnaire survey of 176 long-term unemployed people and in-depth interviews of 50 people， the unemployed people registered in social security office in Haidian street Haidian District Beijing. Research on the long-term unemployed people's employability gap and the effects that training has on promoting their employability discovered that in our country the long-term unemployed people's school records are universally low， their knowledge are out-dated， and their skill levels are too low to meet the market need， and the shortage of human capital quantity extends their unemployment duration.
As shown in Figure 5， among items concerning unemployed people self-perceived obstacles in looking for jobs， “the professional skill could not meet the requirements” ranks the second； “did not have the occupational qualification certificates” ranks the third， and the two occupied respective proportions of 41.4% and 35.2%. That “the professional skill cannot meet the requirements” shows unemployed people's existing skill level cannot meet the requirements of the post advertised. That “did not have the occupational qualification certificates” indicates that unemployed people's existing skill cannot meet the demand of the employers. These data reflects the low skill and the skill gap are the important attributes hindering the unemployed people's re-employment.
Figure 5 The Factor Influencing the Re-employment of Long-term Unemployed
Most of the unemployed people's social relationship network is dwindled after they are unemployed， and the scarcity of the social capital reduces the possibility of the unemployed seeking a position through the social relations network. The phenomenon of age discrimination aggravated the employment condition of the long-term unemployed. Correlation analysis between the age and the unemployment duration demonstrate that the long-term unemployed people's age and the unemployment duration are remarkably related， and the Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.415， namely the older the unemployed people， the longer the unemployment duration.
Given that among the long-term unemployed people， the older group's education level is lower than the younger group obviously， it is necessary to reject the factor of the education level in order to eliminate the education level's influence on the unemployment duration. The analysis showed that after rejecting the influence of education level， the age and the unemployment duration's partial correlation coefficient is 0.372， i.e. age itself does not influence the unemployment duration as much as the simple correlation does， but the phenomenon of age discrimination in labor market becomes one of the obstacles that hinders the long-term unemployed people's re-employment，as shown in Table 14.
Table 14Partial Correlation Analysis of Age and Unemployment Duration
Note:a. Cells contain zero-order (Pearson) correlations.
The research indicated that the long-term unemployed participating in government unemployment training speak highly of the training project. Accepting the training of the essential skill and skill transformation has offered important help to their re-employment. The survey data from the long-term unemployed people's questionnaire demonstrate that 34.1% of the unemployed participated in training of all kinds， the average training time is 1.5 times， the average training period is within two weeks， and the training contents include workmanship training， employment-seeking skill training， and employment policy training and so on. And the proportion of the long-term unemployed that have participated in electrician， chef， household management service is 69.6%， the proportion of the long-term unemployed participating in writing the application letter， the resume， the interview skill is 21.4%， the unemployed participating in employment policy training is 23.2%. Regarding training effect， 93.1% of the long-term unemployed thought that training improved their own employability， and only 6.9% of the unemployed thought that training has not improved the employability. Therefore， receiving the employment training is very important to the long-term unemployed people's re-employment. The long-term unemployed people's investigation indicate that 20.5% of the unemployed people have participated in free skill training project held by the government aiming at the unemployed， and the proportion of the unemployment participating in re-employment training is obviously small. Moreover， the training project and the content have certain distance from the unemployed people's expectation， causing the government's existing training project and the training content fail to meet their needs.
Ⅵ Conclusion and Policy Suggestion
Without doubt， reforming from traditional agriculture to industry and service industry， as well as planned economy system to market economy system， namely under the broader background of so-called “dual reforming”， labor market's constitutive property in our country is contradictory， and the problem of the employability promotion caused by the contradiction appears prominent. Therefore， it is necessary for the country to take strategies and measures of employability promotion in favor of each kind of worker.
a) Put the raise and the development of employability in the central content of national employment strategy. Fully understand the importance of employability in current and a next period of time， and pay great attention to the raise and the development of each kind of employability， specially the enhancement and development of soft ability.
b) Enhance the education and training of beginning an undertaking. Enlarge the research on the initiative capacity and the raise of the initiative capacity. The results of the domestic and foreign existing research outline many initiative capacities the pioneer should have， which should become the key work content of undertaking educates and trains from now on.
c) Emphasize the status and the function of in-service staffs' employability promotion to realize the structure reforming， and promote in-service staffs' employability promotion work through formulating each kind of incentive policy. This includes promoting the career management， carrying out skill wage system， strengthening and consummating the management of credentials， providing the tax preference to spur the enterprise to increase the human capital investment and so on.
d) Further reform the higher education and the vocational-technical education. By consummating the management structure and the school mechanism， as well as encouraging the school-enterprise cooperation and impelling the constructing of the practice base， enhance the school's responsiveness and ability to the external environment change， reduce the school and employer's employability cognition difference and ability gap， and sharpen the enrolled student's employability on a large scale.
e) Enlarge training investment in the special groups personnel's ability， and the appraisal after the investment. Emphasize the raise and the development of the veterans' employability， promote and consummate the vocational skill authentication， and enlarge human capital investment in the rural migrant workers and the unemployed， namely increase the training work. Carry out policy appraisal of education and training effect aimed at all various groups， and take it as the key content from now on when all levels of the government to implement the job enlargement strategy and so on.
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The Development of Employability Concept
Weiguo Yang Huan Xie
Abstract
With the rapid development of economic globalization and integration， the gradually enhancement and complement of knowledge， skills and capacity of labors account for the prosperity of the nation， society as well as enterprise. Nowadays the scholars pay high attention to the problems about how to effectively improve the employability and organizational performance as well as the national competitiveness. Employability plays a significant role in the practice of management and begins to be a critical option. Hence， there is theoretical and practical significance on the research about the foreign concept and area of employability. In this report， we describe the origin and development of employability concept in chronological order， and analyze the influential elements of the development of employability concept from environmental， organizational and individual aspects.
Key words： Employability Concept， Development， Influential Elements
On Classification， Formation Principle and
Fostering Mechanism of Soft-Skills
Tongcheng Xiong Xiangquan Zeng
Abstract
This paper mainly discusses the importance， classification， formation principle and fostering mechanism of soft-skills. Based on former researches， this paper argues that soft-skills should be classified into three levels， namely “applied soft-skills”， “disciplined soft-skills” and “innate soft-skills”， which can be built up into a “pyramid model of soft-skills”. From the classification of soft-skills， this paper constructs the model of soft-skills formation principle. It emphasizes that there is a relationship of steeply determination among these three levels of soft-skills. It is concluded that factors such as family environment， education and development， simulation training and stimulating or restraint mechanism can obviously influence the formation of soft-skills. Fostering soft-skills should be based on the formation mechanism and it should build up a fostering system with different method in different period. It is suggested that education system in China should be innovated from the perspective of promoting soft-skills of people.
Key words： Employability， Soft-skills， Classification， Formation Principle， Fostering Mechanism
Firm Performance，Entrepreneurial Capacity and Education
Jian Wang Ying WuA
bstract
As a symbol of the vitality of economic society， entrepreneurial activity has been paid more attention. In terms of individual， self-employed has already become a kind of rational career choice， which is favored by many people. With regard to the country and society， self-employed is the strong impetus for employment and economic growth.
Currently， China is confronted with serious employment problem. Transformation from “job-hunting by self-determination” to “self-employed” becomes a new choice solving employment plight. The employment policy initiated by government—employment driven by entrepreneurial activity emphasizes that innovation promotes self-employment which also brings along employment， forming benign cycle between economic development and employment expansion. Although the dynamic extent to entrepreneurship activities in China has already reached new high-degree， “poor-impetus” entrepreneurship behavior occupies considerable proportion， which characterized by the lack of entrepreneurial competence . The “opportunity-dragging” entrepreneur has much stronger growth aspiration than the “poor-impetus”. Hence， promoting entrepreneurial competence and increasing “opportunity-dragging” entrepreneurship behavior are significant to the achievement of full-employment of labor market in China.
Nevertheless， the existed studies haven't recognized fully the construct of entrepreneurial competence， and the relationship and function mechanism between entrepreneurial competence and entrepreneurship behavior are not clear， which results in the lack of scientific theoretical foundation for promoting entrepreneurial competence practice activities and the effectiveness of entrepreneurial education is becoming in question. Hence， there is remarkably theoretical and practical significance on the research about the concept， area and function mechanism about firm performance of entrepreneurial competence.
In this paper， based on the literature review， we focus on the literatures of entrepreneurial competence， which are written by the experts from the domestic and oversea since 1980s， attempting to identify the concept and construct of the entrepreneurial competence， as well as explore the relationship between the entrepreneurial competence and venture performance， and then explore preliminarily the relationship between entrepreneurial competence and entrepreneurial education.
The conclusions which could be drawn from the reviewed literature are as follows: 1. the entrepreneurial competence is the combination of individual characteristics (such as personal traits， knowledge， skills， etc.)， which could lead to better performance. In addition， there is difference among the research constructs of the viewpoints from different levels. 2. The introduction of the concept from single psychological feature to comprehensive entrepreneurial competence， and further study of the reactive mechanism between entrepreneurial competence and venture performance， which have been tested to be the improvement of the venture performance. 3. No matter on theory or on practice， people realize that entrepreneurial education plays a promotion role on entrepreneurial competence. Meantime， the using of the concept of entrepreneurial competence serves as a new theoretical basis for entrepreneurial education on study and practice.
Furthermore， based on the literature review， the paper also gives some tendencies on the study of entrepreneurial competence. It is said that the dynamic conception of entrepreneurial competence will be a new field of research， and more empirical researches on entrepreneurial education and training will be taken in order to develop more proper entrepreneurial education project. In China， the study on entrepreneurial competence is still on the beginning， there should be more related researches in accordance with the national conditions， on the basis of the foreign study.
Key words： Firm Performance， Entrepreneurial Capacity， Education
Career Challenges under the Changing Employment
Environment
Xiaochuang YangA
bstract
Work environment has been evolving and employment opportunities and forms are harder to predict and more variable. Under the new employment environment， people are managers of their own careers and more commonly experience careers comprised of many positions cross multiple organizations and even industries. In the meantime， companies now tend to encourage employees to become more actively involved in the management of their own careers, and to shift accountability for career management from the employer to the employees.
Based on these findings of studies conducted in western countries， this paper examined career management under the new employment deal from perspectives of both individuals and organizations. Through a survey of working individuals undergoing masters' degree study at the People's University of China， the paper explored the relationship between organizational career management and individual career management， taking into account of effects of gender and individual career motives and preferences.
Findings of the study show that participants of the survey have already crossed the boundaries of organizations at the early stages of their careers, and are actively engaged in career self management activities.Study of relationships between organizational career management and individual career management found that organizational career management has a positive impact on retention. Conclusions are reached that investment in company career management interventions itself won't lead to undesired turnover. With regard to gender and its impact on individual career management behaviors， the study found that there are no differences between men and women in terms of practices of individual career management activities. This study shows that among professionals with similar age， education background and desire for personal improvement， their career management interventions are not that different. In addition， there are no evidence that gender is a significant predictor when examining correlations between individual career management and organizations career management, and correlations between individual career management and individual's intention to quit. Finally， this study recommends that further study be conducted to study the extend to which boundaryless careers are beneficial to individuals， organizations and， if so， under what conditions.
Key words： Career Management， Employability， Labor Market
Establishing an Incentive System for Employability
Enhancement
Hongfeng Song
Abstract
With the development of knowledge-based economy and economic globalization， employability insufficiency has become a key factor that restricts the international competency of our country. As a result， in order to ease employment pressure and enhance the employability， it is important to design appropriate incentive mechanism， increase the enterprises' influence on employability enhancement， and improve the training speed of skilled workforce in the company.
In order to provide Chinese enterprise with profitable experience and instruction during their practice for SBP plan， this research is dedicated to examine the practice efficiency of SBP plan and analyze the effecting factors by multi-case study. For this research purpose， the study goes on as following three matters: first， to analyze the characteristic in different cases when the firms apply for special SBP plan; second， to examine the effect on employability enhancement impacted by SBP plan; third， to figure out the pivotal elements working on the practice effect of SBP plan.
Although different SBP plans have their own advantages and disadvantages， their effects on such five aspects as the rising of per labor cost， the enhancement of human resource flexibility， the selection of qualified workers， the regulation of the career of employee， the improvement of the quality of product (or service) and the decrease of the accident in the process of production (or service) are significant. Besides， the organizational characteristics， design characteristics of SBP plan， practice characteristics of SBP plan， organizing resource guarantee for SBP plan， and the workers enthusiasm under SBP plan are the five key elements affecting the efficiency of SBP.
Key words： Skill-based Pay， Employability Enhancement， Case Study
Vocational Qualification Certificates and Their Impact on
Technical Workers' Skill Level and Earnings
Zhongxing Su Xiangquan Zeng Mingwei Liu
Abstract
Vocational Qualification Certificates System is an essential part of China's labor employment system， and has important influence in advancing workers' skills， promoting employment and deepening market economy reform. However， no empirical research has focused on this field yet. Using micro data from five manufacturing enterprises， we test the impact of different levels of national vocational qualification certificates on technical workers' skills and earnings. Results show that national vocational qualification certificates are positively correlated with skill levels of technical workers. We also find significant and positive relationships between vocational qualification certificates and the earnings of technical workers. Compared with those without a certificate， the primary worker (Level5) and intermediate worker (Level4) certificates can bring about 9.5% wage premium， and the advanced worker certificates (Level3) can bring about 11.0% wage premium， while the wage premium of technician or higher level certificates (Level2 and Level1) increases significantly to 24.0%.
Key words： National Vocational Qualification Certificates， Skill Level，Earnings
Employability， Internship and Graduate Employment
Shisong Qing Xiangquan Zeng
Abstract
Employability and internship experiences can play an increasingly supportive role in promoting graduates from school to work. With Shandong Province graduates survey data in 2007， this paper empirically examined the effects of graduate employability and internship on the probability of initial employment and the level of starting salary， and investigated the determinant factor of employability. Evidence indicates that employability has significantly positive effects on initial employment and starting salary. Major-related internship can improve employability. For the more， it has significant independent effect on graduate employment. This paper suggests that employment policy must be aimed more at enhancing individual employability and more on the supply side. At last， some recommendations about promoting graduate employability and employment are put forward.
Key words： Employability， Internship， Initial Employment， StartingSalary
On the Cognitive Differences of the Employability
of the Undergraduates
Ling NiuA
bstract
Currently， Employment difficulty for the undergraduates has become the focus of the government and society. There are many reasons resulting in this kind of phenomenon， including employment policy; employment environment etc.， from the perspective of supply， the insufficient employability of the undergraduates is also an important reason. Via the in-depth interviews and the questionnaire， this article shows that the employability model for the petrol engineering department undergraduates can be divided into four dimensions， which are separately personality characteristics， basic capabilities， occupational capabilities and general skills. The undergraduates and enterprises have cognitive differences in the four dimensions of the employability model. The personality characteristics is the most demanded employability dimension for the enterprise， but the undergraduates believe that the occupational capability is the most important. The research result also discovers that the practice period has the negative influence upon the employability cognitive difference size for the undergraduates， namely the longer practice period for the students， the smaller cognitive difference by the enterprise party with regard to the employability model. But the employment service satisfaction degree has no obvious influence on the cognitive difference of employability model. From another perspective， it reflects that employment service function of the higher learning institutions should be improved urgently.
Key words： College Graduates， Employability， Cognitive Difference， Undergraduate， Petroleum Engineering
Employment Situations and Employability Study of
Graduated
Ting Wang Yumei Yang Jin Zhang
Abstract
Structural unemployment caused by the lack of employability is an essential reason of China graduates' “employment difficulty”. Based on literature studies and interviews， this paper designs questionnaires of graduates' employment situation and employability， conducts surveys among college teachers and graduates in Zhongguancun area of Beijing， and builds a competency model from knowledge， skill， attitude aspects. This paper mainly shows that: First， the majority of employers hired graduates over the past three years,and graduates from prestigious universities are more favored by employers. Second， deep difficulty of graduates' employment resulted from the employability gap between graduates and employers' need. Problems of college curriculum are the separation between theory and practice. Third， human capital and social capital are two main factors helpful for employment quality. Fourth， teachers and parents put much impact on graduates' employment concept，and pressures of employment are partly from society's high-expects to graduates. Fifth， employer's expects for graduates are much higher than for undergraduates except some items， competence demand for majors in management and technology are distinct. Sixth， graduates and undergraduates both showed employability gap， especially undergraduates major in literature and social science， extra curricular training and professional certification contributed to narrowing the employability gap， also， curricular， major establishment， quality of teaching and career guidance exerted tiny emphasis on employability gap. Last but not least， periods of internship and graduates' satisfaction to college affected cognitive gap between employers and graduates.
Key words： Graduates， Employment Situation， Employability
Investigation and Analysis of Human Resource Management
Course Set，Training Program and Employability Conditions
Wenxia Zhou Juanjuan Hou Guangyang Zhu Fei Zhang
Abstract
This paper aims to study human resources management course setting， training program， and self-report employability of university students. The conclusions include: First， current HRM course set includes all traditional main functions of HRM， but it doesn't have enough focus on new responsibilities emerging in modern organizations and timely responses to new problems faced by HRM practices. Second， different types of universities have similar course set， and orientation of HRM major is not clear， which hinders the development of undergraduates' unique employability. Third， as for evaluation of the importance of the courses， HRM professionals put more emphasis on practical aspects of curriculum to improve undergraduates' employability by teaching practice and internship. Fourth， as for self-reporting employability， undergraduates rate themselves high on comprehensive competence， especially communication skill which is the highest while rate low on professional skill which is the lowest. Fifth， as for the satisfaction level of HRM training program， undergraduates are satisfied with school teaching training program target， faculty， academic activity and contest of debating and thesis organized by school and college, however,they express dissatisfactions with internship and employment guiding activities. Base on the above founding， this study has made corresponding improvement measures and suggestions.
Key words： HRM Course Set， Training Program， Employability
Employability Developing and Employment Strategy of
Vocational Technology School Students
Ting Wang
Abstract
Recent years， structural unemployment is obvious in China labor market. Improving the students' employability which is oriented by the labor market needs has become an important object of the vocational technology education development. According to the character of labor market， the labors' employability has been researched in the countries of the world， which can instruct the education and training development. Aiming at the skill factors of the students' employability， we did survey in the vocational technology schools of transportation industry by interview and questionnaire， and then constructed the skill factors model of the students' employability in vocational technology schools of China. As a result， it indicates that the operation skill is the most important factor in the students' employability model， and it appears difference that the skills have been taken into account in the employability between the employers and the vocational technology schools. Bad self-orientation， poor practice ability and poor adaptability are the obvious questions in the employment process of vocational technology school students now. Non-cognize skills， such as responsibility， team cooperation， work initiative， honesty and so on， are very important for the employability of vocational technology school students. After analyzing the reason of employability gap of vocational technology school students， we propose that vocational technology education should take on the important task of fostering the person with advanced skills. For achieving the quality-oriented employment strategy of vocational technology school students in China， we will firmly focus on the goal of developing the students' employability.
Key words： Vocational Technology Schools， Students' Employability， Skill Factors， Employment Strategy
Veteran Employability Development and Employment
Facilitation in China
Zhou Yu Chen Liwen
Abstract
This paper offers analysis， discussion and suggestions on the improvement of veteran employability and its development mechanism. Proceeding from the practical problems linked to the demobilized officers' employment， this paper illustrates the challenge brought to central-planed job placement of ex-servicemen by economic transformation. Then by introducing the concept and the structure of employability， this paper discusses the characteristics of veteran employability and discovers three major features such as strong dependence on the institution， evident convertibility from the battlefield to the market and better soft skills against inferior professional skills. On the basis of data analysis， this paper elaborates on the training needs of ex-servicemen. In addition， we introduce the institution and mechanism of veteran employment in countries like the United States， Russia， Japan and India that provide experiences for that of China. Finally， we make suggestions on the improving of veteran employability such as emphasizing the converting role of government as an employability development facilitator rather than a dominate resource allocator， activating various development system for veteran employability， and actively and steadily push forward the professional career system of military officers with Chinese characteristics.
Key words： Veteran Employment， Employability， Development Mechanism
Migrant Workers Training Effect and Employability
Elevation
Yumei Yang
Abstract
Based on the survey of some trainees of Henan Sunshine Program， this paper estimates the Sunshine Program's implementation status， and empirically tests the impact of the Sunshine Program's implementation status on the employability elevation and the employment situation improvement. The study finds that trainees of the Sunshine Program have a higher evaluation on teachers training， and a lower evaluation on training equipment， training materials， and training length. This paper also finds that the Sunshine Program elevates trainees' employability and helps migrant workers find job more easily， win more job chance and higher wage. Through empirical study， the paper concludes that the Sunshine Program's implementation status has positive influence on the employability elevation and the employment situation improvement. The regression analysis of training on the wage showed that training significantly increased the monthly wages of trainees， and for men， married people and high school students more effective. Different characteristics of training program have different training effects， in which the State to provide partial subsidies， training time for 3， 4， 5 months of training professionals can help increase more wages of trainees. A number of highly specialized training professionals， such as electronic appliances， welders， construction decoration， vehicle driving and maintenance and other skilled professionals are also more likely to improve the wages of trainees.
Key words： Sunshine Program， Implementation Status， Employability， Employment Situation， Training Effect
Study on Employability of Long-term Unemployed：
Gap and Promotion Policy
Yuxue Cui Xin Wang
Abstract
Solving the employment of long-term unemployed is concerned with social harmony and stability， and at the same time， employability is the key factor for re-employment of long-time unemployment. Aiming to two research questions， it is making sure that the employability gap of long-time unemployed， and appraising the role played by training programs for the unemployed.
The research conclusions are drawn as following: First， long-term unemployed has low educational level， aging knowledge， low skill level and their skills do not match the demand of the employer. Insufficient of human capital causes a longer unemployment duration. Second， after losing his job， the social network of the most long-term unemployed is narrow， and lacking of social network leads to the capability of finding job declining. Third， age discrimination makes more serious of re-employment of long-term unemployed. Fourth， state of health and reservation wage do not constitute employability gap. Last， the long-term unemployed， who take part in the training programs holding by government， give high appraisement on them， but due to training programs and training contents cannot meet the demand of the long-term unemployed， so less people attend.
Several policy recommendations are putted forward， including strengthening vocational and technical education， cultivating the practice ability of the students; training for convertible skills， promoting re-employment of long-term unemployed; paying more attention on employment service for long-term unemployed， shortening the unemployment duration of them; eliminating labor market discrimination， maintaining the equal rights of employment of long-term unemployed.
Key words： Long-term Unemployed， Unemployment Duration， Employability， Employability Gap， Training Programs for the Unemployed