With new graduates about to enter the job market, nearly 40 percent of students who left school last year are still out of work, a survey by an online job agency said yesterday.
The 104 Job Bank survey, which polled 2,645 young adults and 484 businesses in April, said that approximately 80 percent of business respondents attributed the low employment to schools’ failure to provide proper training to equip graduates for the job market.
Most companies said recent graduates were lacking in foreign language and professional skills, reflecting a lack of readiness for employment, the poll said.
“Up to 78 percent of polled enterprises said there was a big gap between professional knowledge and skills students learned in school and what the market demands,” said Hanson Huang (黃漢聲), a director at the job bank.
“About 17 percent of businesses said that what students learned in school has nothing to with what is required in the profession they are engaged in,” Huang said, adding that nearly 70 percent of companies said they give priority to applicants who possess professional licenses.
The survey also said that 36 percent of polled companies suggested that students develop their personal skills before graduation, while 35.3 percent said students should consider pursuing further education based on their career plans.
The survey found that 66 percent of those who graduated last year and are currently employed said that vocational training outside school helped them find a job, while 11.45 percent said training programs did not help.
Of those who considered off-campus training programs as helpful for job hunting, 41.6 percent said the training provided new graduates with sufficient skills for their job and 12.6 percent said it helped them develop a second professional skill.
“In addition to improving their foreign language and professional skills, [new graduates] should pay attention to computer operation skills, and time and stress management,” Huang said.
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last