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Job seekers lacking international knowledge

Local first-time job-seekers generally lack international perspective as they have such poor knowledge or awareness of international affairs, according to the results of an online survey released over the weekend.

The survey was conducted by the online job bank www.9999.com.tw from Aug. 14 to 25 among 10,000 first-time job seekers, randomly chosen from the 120,000 applicants in its databank, and 3,825 valid replies were collected.

The poll found that the respondents received an average score of 35.3 points on a zero-to-100 scale in terms of their awareness of international current events and relevant affairs and that the average score even for master's degree holders was only 47.34 points.

According to the poll, 45 percent of the respondents did not know where Greece -- the host country of the 2004 Olympic Games -- is located.

Only 23.84 percent received a passing grade of 60 points and the remaining 76.16 percent flunked the test. Only three respondents received a full score of 100 points.

About 40 percent were unaware where Brazil is, with 13.83 percent mistaking Brazil as an African country, and only 19 percent correctly identified Belize as a Central American country. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will visit Belize early next month.

An equally disappointing finding was that only 14 percent were able to correctly name incumbent Chinese President Wen Jiabao (溫家寶); 36 percent chose Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) and 26 percent chose Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).

With Taiwan's accession to the World Trade Organization, local employers have attached increasing importance to their employees' international perspective and awareness, a job bank spokesman said.

According to the survey, 47.92 percent said they think that international perspective and awareness are important in their careers and 52.23 percent acknowledged that they did not have enough international affairs knowledge.

However, the survey found that only 22.59 percent were willing to pay more heed to international current events; 57 percent said overseas trips would be the best way to gain more international knowledge; 53 percent cited "making friend with foreigners" as a good way; and 43 percent said they believe that seeing foreign movies could help increase their international perspective and awareness.

Textbooks, TV news and HBO -- a cable TV movie channel -- were cited by respondents as their main sources of knowledge about international current events.
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