More than 56 percent of first-time job seekers consider the government’s enterprise internship program aimed at revitalizing the job market to be ineffective, a survey released by 1111 Job Bank showed yesterday.
The Ministry of Education released a list of 35,100 one-year enterprise internships earlier this year for job seekers who obtained their university degrees between 2006 and last year as part of its efforts to help young people gain work experience and ease the nation’s deteriorating job market.
The survey said that only 44 percent of respondents “appreciated the government’s goodwill.”
“Although the internship program has reduced the number of people who have never found a job by 22 percent, down from 45 percent last year, it can’t be denied that the results produced by the measure are limited,” Henry Ho (何啟聖), public relations director of the job bank, said in a press release.
Ho cast doubts on whether the program would truly help interns find jobs later and whether they would be able to become full-timers in the same company after the internship ends.
Based on the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics’ data, the nation’s unemployment rate peaked in August at 6.13 percent and dropped to 5.96 percent in October.
However, the unemployment rate for job seekers with college degrees has continued to rise in recent months to 6.47 percent last month, the government’s data showed.
“Part of the reason for the limited effect of the government’s internship program is that the companies are still uncertain that the economy will turn robust and thus are hesitant to recruit those interns,” Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源), president of the Taipei-based Polaris Research Institute (寶華綜合經濟研究院), said by telephone yesterday.
Liang said that school training was also an important factor in their decision to hire interns after they complete the program.
The survey found that nearly 60 percent of respondents started to look for a job before they graduated and that the average starting salary fell NT$1,368 to NT$24,358 from last year’s NT$25,726.
It also showed that 41.6 percent of the unemployed depend on their personal savings to make ends meet, followed by financial assistance from their relatives and friends at 24.3 percent and part-time jobs at 13.18 percent.
Ho said that first-time job seekers should develop their professional skills and build up networks to make up for their lack of work experience.
“A good resume will also help employers understand you better and make you stand out from other applicants,” he said.
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