Recruiting in China

SHANGHAI has launched a technician training program to solve unemployment among young people by matching polytechnic and college graduates with employers, city officials announced yesterday.

The pilot training program will be implemented this year in schools and vocational institutes specializing in training of students for the automobile, equipment manufacturing, new material and new energy, logistics, trade, exhibition and other manufacturing industries.

Jiao Yang, the city government spokeswoman, said matching graduates with companies could fill the professional vacancies while at the same time ease the city's youth unemployment pressure.

Schools are required to cooperate with firms to design curriculums and carry out classroom teaching according to employers' requirements.

Schools can send students to work at the companies on a regular basis throughout the three-year study period to gain practical experience. But the total hands-on job training period should not be less than one year.

The government will allocate money from the city's unemployment fund to subsidize companies for costs of using their equipment.

Officials said the training program was expected to raise the city's percentage of high-level technicians from 17 percent now to 25 percent by 2010.