Education reforms could help jobless rate

Taiwan's unemployment rate has reached new heights in recent months. Meanwhile, according to local newspapers, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) has said that there are still tens of thousands of job opportunities out there, while appealing to the local workers to "get a job first and get a better job later."

The government needs to be more aggressive in trying to reduce the jobless rate. How can local workers "get a job first" and "get a better job later?" Has the government come up with any supplementary measures specially designed to help local workers find a better job later? All efforts will be in vain if the government only points to job opportunities, without providing appropriate vocational training to help the unemployed obtain better jobs.

Take the field of mobile telecommunications, for example. Many mobile-phone manu-facturers have complained that they cannot find suitable employees. Many graduates in this field, however, have also complained that they cannot find suitable jobs. This phenomenon clearly demonstrates one fact: There is a gap between school training and the industry's demands.

Many professors seem to believe that education in universities and graduate schools is different from vocational training. From my experience as an instructor at the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, most of the students there are diligent and hard-working but they lack sufficient background knowledge to be trained effectively. Had they studied the fields that are highly sought-after by industry while they were in school, they could have landed good jobs and contributed to society much sooner.

In these extraordinary times, I sincerely hope that government leaders can dare to adjust Tai-wan's higher education in order to meet the demands of both industry and the market.

Even in the academic programs catering to industrial needs, the manner in which professionals and talents are cultivated is also questionable. Take mobile-telecommunications technology for example. Since a major technology breakthrough may occur every few months, professors in those fields usually fall behind those in the industry in terms of their professional knowledge. Extra training for students, therefore, is still necessary before they start work. In response to dramatic industrial and economic changes in Tai-wan, the Ministry of Education needs to provide effective channels for those professors to pursue further studies -- so that they can improve their professional ability at all times.

Another concern is that the quality and attitude of undergraduate and graduate students in Taiwan is gradually declining. Today's students usually have an easy, comfortable life and they often try to reap benefits without working for them. On the other hand, the quality of students from China's first-class universities has long surpassed that of the students in Taiwan. After being in touch with graduates from China's renowned Tsinghua University (清華大學), I found that they are not only better educated than students in Taiwan, but are able to bear more hardships and hard work.

In fact, many high-tech companies have relocated from Taiwan to China because they can find better workers there, not cheaper ones.

As the unemployment rate rises, the government should pay attention to higher-education reforms -- including the improvement of both teachers and students -- instead of proposing short-term solutions.