Policy aims to help ease pressure on employment brought by pandemic

More than 400,000 fresh college graduates will be hired to work as teachers at kindergartens and primary and secondary schools this year to ease the employment pressure on new graduates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new notice said on Wednesday.

The notice－jointly issued by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and three other departments－said the students can work as teachers before they get teaching credentials, as the country has postponed teacher certification exams to the second half of this year over coronavirus concerns.

The country is expected to see 8.74 million new college graduates this year, up 400,000 from a year earlier, and they face greater challenges in finding work due to the outbreak.

This year, the Ministry of Education is planning to increase the enrollment of master's degree students by 189,000, while the country's bachelor's degree programs will strive to admit an additional 322,000 junior college students, according to the notice.

The number of graduates hired through a special program to work at rural primary and secondary schools will also be increased by 5,000 to 105,000 this year, it said.

The notice said State-owned enterprises should increase the enrollment of college graduates this year and next year. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are encouraged to hire more graduates, with authorities offering them subsidies and returning their unemployment insurance premiums.

It also encouraged more university graduates to work at grassroots levels and rural areas and apply to enlist in the Chinese armed forces.

Graduates from Hubei province will enjoy favorable treatment in master's degree program enrollment as well as government-funded recruitment programs at primary levels and in rural areas, it said.

Online campus recruitment platforms will continue to offer round-the-clock service to help graduates find jobs, it added.

According to a notice issued by the Wuhan government last month, State-owned enterprises in the city should allocate at least 60 percent of their employment quota this year to recruit new college graduates, and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises can receive 1,000 yuan ($141) in subsidies for each graduate they employ.

Shu Shaoqin, a senior student at South-Central University for Nationalities in Wuhan, said he has found a job as a teacher at a tutoring institution thanks to the employment guidance and online recruitment platform offered by the university.

Although many enterprises have cut employment this year, those that can survive the outbreak will emerge stronger than before, said Shu, 22.

"The epidemic's influence on employment will only be temporary and will not have a long-term impact on Wuhan's development," he said.

Liu Yunzhen, a senior student at Wuhan University, said she has found a job at an animation company in Wuhan.

Some industries, such as online education, animation and e-commerce, have witnessed rapid development due to the outbreak, and graduates can shift their focus to finding jobs in such sectors, she said.