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[SHENZHEN DAILY]
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| Students read a list of positions offered by more than 100 companies at a job fair in Shenzhen Polytechnic yesterday. Hundreds of jobseekers peddled resumes at the job fair organized by the school and the city's personnel bureau. Liu Minxia | |
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| The number of Chinese college graduates by millions | |
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A mid a tight job market worsened by the global economic downturn, governments and schools are encouraging college graduates to set up their own businesses. All kinds of entrepreneurship contests have also arisen. In Shenzhen, a city known for its entrepreneurship, students' enthusiasm for starting a business has never been stronger. Some already own small businesses, and some are planning to found bigger firms. Is self-employment of fresh graduates a way out of the grim job market? Or is it just to keep them busy and protect social stability as some parents claim?
Liu Minxia
LI KAI had never expected so many students would show up at a seminar on how to start a business Saturday in Longgang District, which is far away from their campus in Xili, Nanshan District.
Among the some 80 students who came to the seminar to learn and apply for financial support offered by the Longgang District Government, Li, director of the Career Guidance Center for Graduates of Shenzhen Polytechnic, learned that about 50 were determined to establish their own businesses after graduating this summer.
Some of them have already set up their own businesses, ranging from a restaurant and an art design firm to a personal image design firm and an online shop.
“A growing number of students have frequented my office this year to consult me about operating a business,” said Li.
“Students’ enthusiasm, willingness and initiative for carving out a business have never been so strong. At another seminar held early this month in our school, more than 200 students filled up an auditorium, listening to staff from the city’s industry and commerce bureau, taxation bureau, labor bureau and banks explain the procedures of starting a business.”
But Li doesn’t think it’s a passive result of China’s grim job market aggravated by the global financial woes ? even though he said that only 17 percent of the school’s 6,400 graduates-to-be have found jobs so far.
“From my point of view, the global financial crisis prompted students to think about a different road,” Li said. “Benefiting from the city’s well fostered entrepreneurship, students in Shenzhen have always been more flexible and better informed than their peers in inland regions. They have a stronger tendency to start businesses.”
What Li can’t deny, however, is that the slowing economy won’t be able to absorb as many degree-holders into jobs for which they’ve been trained or educated, as in previous years. Some 6.11 million college graduates are expected to flood China’s job market this year, joining more than 1 million of last year’s diploma-holders who still haven’t found work. As of March, only 35.6 percent of this year’s would-be graduates had landed jobs, far below the government goal of 70 percent, according to the Social Survey Institute of China.
Fewer than 9 percent of Guangdong’s college graduates in 2009 had found work by March, compared with 18 percent a year earlier. In Shenzhen, which once drew millions of laborers from all corners of the country with well paid jobs, only 302 of 5,479 students graduating from Shenzhen University in July had signed job contracts by Monday, according to Bao Xiaoqing, head of the university’s career guidance center.
Confronted by a global economic recession, these educated elites have to either lower their expectations, further their studies or become self-employed.
Viewing self-employment as an effective option for students, all levels of governments and schools in China have vowed full support to college graduates who’d like to try their luck in establishing their own businesses. Shenzhen’s labor bureau, youth league committee, science and technology bureau and district governments have promised no-interest loans up to 100,000 yuan (US$14,636), training courses or waivers of office rent. The only two colleges in the city, Shenzhen University and Shenzhen Polytechnic, have set up foundations to support start-ups owned by graduates.
As a reflection of the times, entrepreneurship contests have mushroomed in the past months, organized by government agencies, NGOs, companies and even students themselves. These contests bring a little hope to high-flying but panicky students by offering big prize money or complete training programs.
Students are becoming ever more aware of the option of self-employment. Fifty-five Shenzhen University graduates have decided to open their own businesses, and some of them have carried out their plans, according to Bao.
A class that teaches students how to run a company is becoming increasingly popular this semester, with hundreds of students showing up, even freshmen, sophomores and students of most majors, said Wang Xiaoting, a professor with Shenzhen University’s College of Management. Many of them came to Wang to ask for help with solving problems that dealt with everything from running a laundry and a milk tea shop to a bookstore.
“Some of my classmates and I are trying our hand at business now to get some experience and get ready for the future,” said Xiang Zhiwen, a freshman at Shenzhen University.
Zeng Yongle, a teacher in the students affairs office at the college, pointed at the new headquarters building of Tencent Technologies, a leading IT firm founded by Shenzhen University graduate Ma Huateng, which looks across the university’s campus, as he explained that Shenzhen’s deep-rooted culture of founding small businesses has had a profound influence on students in the city.
Promising as self-employment looks, however, many believe that few businesses started by fresh graduates will last long. “With insufficient experience and funds, the risk of going under is very high,” said Huang Kaishan, a teacher at Shenzhen University.
“Real life is different from contests,” said Chen Shiji, who won a prize as a virtual company president in an entrepreneurship contest last year. He has decided to go to Australia to further his study after graduating from Shenzhen University this July. “I prefer to be employed for a few years before starting my own business.”
Some even doubt whether self-employment poses a way through the tight job market. “The policy of encouraging students to set up their own businesses is to keep them busy and protect social stability,” said Yin Wenling, whose younger brother will graduate from Shenzhen this year. “It’s almost impossible for students from poor families to start a business. Only those with rich dads and moms can get money from their parents to test their luck.”
Of the 13 students interviewed for this story who had founded or planned to begin a business, just over half said they had received assistance from their parents.
Regardless, some parents are in favor of the policy given the dismal outlook on jobs. “If he decides to found a business, we support him,” said Wang Liping, a Shenzhen resident whose son is a junior in a law school in Beijing.
Some businesses might quickly fail, while others last longer, Zeng said, but both success and failure are valuable experience for the future.
| Starting small and clear-eyed |
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| Chen Baijia | |
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Liu Minxia
CHEN BAIJIA at first planned to open a property management company, but the 24-year-old is now planning something smaller and much more related to his major.
A design major graduating from Shenzhen Polytechnic in July, Chen is starting an advertisement designing firm with four classmates.
“I had made a detailed plan for establishing a property management company,” said Chen. “It required an initial investment of 800,000 yuan (US$117,077) to 1 million yuan. People told me that I’m inexperienced and should start with a small firm.”
With that in mind, he turned his plans over to his father, a Shenzhen resident, who implemented the business plan himself.
With 150,000 yuan his parents gave him, Chen is looking for potential customers before registering the company.
Chen didn’t want to found a business so soon and thought a few years of work experience would help him succeed in his future business. After sending out his resume to many places, however, he received few responses. “There were companies that asked me to work as an intern,” Chen said. “But the chance of being recruited there would be very slim.”
Only a few of the roughly 60 graduates in his major have landed a job so far, and many others have only gotten internships, which likely won’t lead to employment, Chen said.
“The risk for fresh graduates starting businesses is very high,” Chen said. “I learned that only 0.3 percent of this kind of businesses survive in China.”
In order to be fully prepared, Chen went to his peers for encouragement and advice about his ambitious plan of starting a business.
“A Shenzhen University graduate, who is setting up his own business, told me to start with something small because we are green graduates,” Chen said.
In addition to learning from his business-experienced parents, Chen is also studying books and attending training programs to learn how to run a firm.
“The first step is most difficult,” Chen said. “Support from the government and media could help us lower the risk.”
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| Ma Muyuanye | |
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FINDING the right job is difficult after graduating from college with a less popular major. Ma Muyuanye, who is majoring in ornamental designing in Shenzhen Polytechnic, has decided to put aside the subject he studied and become self-employed.
Ma, a 22-year-old graduating in July, opened a drink and snack shop named Sweet Cc near his campus a month ago.
“The job market is tough for new graduates, even with popular majors,” said Ma. “Not many companies want graduates in my major. After realizing that, I started to look for ways to become self-employed last year.”
With more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,636) that Ma and his two partners got from their parents, the three students opened the shop March 9. “Our parents are all open-minded,” Ma said. “They know how hard it is to get a job.”
Before the shop opened, Ma sent two schoolmates to be trained in drink-making in Dongguan. “The cost would be too high if we hired experienced drink-makers,” Ma said. “Hiring classmates can help them make a living.”
Although Ma didn’t lose money during the first month of operation, he experienced many problems with his nascent business. “We three partners have the same amount of stock ownership, and we don’t listen to each other when we disagree,” Ma said.
“More importantly, we are all students with no work experience. We all tend to be lazy.”
Ma has also concluded that the range of the products offered by the shop is not wide enough. He said he will redesign the menus and offer dinner options to attract nearby residents as well.
“It temporarily solved the job problem for me,” Ma said. “Through Sweet Cc, I have learned to do business and communicate with partners. But I will definitely try something bigger in the future.”
One important key to a successful business is a trusting relationship among partners, Ma said.
He said that in the future if he can’t find trustworthy partners he’d prefer to start a solo business. | |
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