Opinions on Strengthening the Cultivation of Services Outsourcing Talents and Boosting Employment of Graduates from Institutions of Higher Education

Updated : 2019-02-20Source : Ministry of Education
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Ministry of Education and Ministry of Commerce

[Gaojiao 2009] No. 5

18 March 2009

To Education Departments (or Education Commissions) and competent departments of commerce of Provinces, Autonomous Regions, and Municipalities directly under the Central Government, the Education Bureau and the Commerce Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and institutions of higher education directly under the Ministry of Education:
 
In order to implement and carry out the spirit of the Replies of the General Office of the State Council on the Issues Concerning the Promotion of the Development of the Services Outsourcing Industry (Guobanhan 2009 No. 9) and the Opinions of the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, on Further Strengthening the Cultivation of Talents in Acute and Serious Shortage in the State’s Key Development Areas (Jiaogao 2007 No. 16), the following opinions are put forward for accelerating the cultivation of services outsourcing talents, enhancing the quality of the services outsourcing workers, and boosting employment of graduates from the institutions of higher education:

A.Significance of cultivating services outsourcing talents

The services outsourcing industry is a brain-power concentrated modern services sector, with a high concentration of information technology, great added value, low resources consumption, low environment pollution, and a high level of internationalisation. Vigorous efforts to cultivate services outsourcing talents and to enhance the employability of graduates from institutions of higher education will facilitate the transformation of the modes of economic development, promote coordinated development of regional economies, optimise structures of foreign trade, and enhance the level of utilisation of foreign investments; and at the same time, will be of great significance to the overall implementation of the scientific outlook on development and the realisation of the goal of ‘ensuring economic growth, expanding domestic demand, and adjusting economic structures’.

B.Goals for the cultivation of services outsourcing talents

Institutions of higher education should, in accordance with the requirements of the fast development of the services outsourcing industry, adjust structures for the cultivation of services talents, expand the scale of the cultivation of services talents, and make considerable efforts to enhance the quality of the cultivation of service outsourcing talents. The services outsourcing industry involves such areas as software research and development, product and technology research and development, industrial design, information technology research and development, information technology outsourcing, technical workflow outsourcing. Therefore, institutions of higher education of various kinds should work towards the establishment of programmes for the cultivation of services outsourcing talents in related specialised fields and the cultivation of services outsourcing talents on various levels, including polytechnic, undergraduate, postgraduate, etc. Efforts must be made so that within five years 1.2 million services outsourcing talents are cultivated and trained, that 1 million college or university graduates find employment, and that the goal of reaching USD 30 billion in international services outsourcing projects undertaken is realised by the year 2013.

C.Establishing a system for the cultivation and training of services outsourcing talents

The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education are jointly responsible for accrediting the ‘Training Centres for Services Outsourcing Talents’ set up in selected model cities for the services outsourcing industry in China, and for formulating the criteria for ‘Services Outsourcing Talents Training Centres’, public training bodies, and practitioners of the outsourcing industry. The ‘Training Centres for Services Outsourcing Talents’ will be responsible for coordinating the cultivation of services outsourcing talents, training, practice and internship between local institutions of higher education, public training bodies and services outsourcing enterprises.

Efforts should be made by local governments to strengthen policy support for the ‘Training Centres for Services Outsourcing Talents’, institutions of higher education and public training bodies, and effective measures should be adopted to enhance the quality of cultivation and training so as to satisfy the employment demands of service outsourcing enterprises. Institutions of higher education and public training bodies should follow relevant standards in cultivating and training services outsourcing talents. Service outsourcing enterprises are encouraged to organise and accept students from institutions of higher education for professional practice and social practice. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education will regularly publish the number of both graduates of institutions of higher education and those who have gone through training by public training bodies who have been employed by services outsourcing enterprises. The two Ministries will also cooperate with other relevant departments in establishing a services outsourcing talents bank in order to facilitate the setting up of talent pools for the services outsourcing industry.

D.Adjusting professional structures in order to meet the needs of the service outsourcing industry

Computer Science and Technology programmes of local institutions of higher education should aim mainly at the cultivation of applied talents and make vigorous efforts to cultivate services outsourcing talents. Selected model software colleges and vocational technical software colleges should treat the cultivation of outsourcing talents as an extremely important task and at the same time, selected model software colleges will concentrate on the cultivation of high-end services outsourcing talents in order to enhance the overall innovative capacity and competitiveness of China’s services outsourcing industry. Institutions of higher education of ‘Selected model cities for services outsourcing in China’ should establish services outsourcing programmes in the subjects related to the services outsourcing industry.

E.Adopting flexible measures in cultivating services outsourcing talents

Institutions of higher education should, according to the characteristics of specialties related to the services outsourcing industry, cultivate services outsourcing talents by adopting flexible measures, following advanced international technologies and the concept of internationalisation, and exploring multiple modes. Additional disciplines and courses on services outsourcing can be offered on the basis of the existing programmes; services outsourcing courses offered by public training bodies can be introduced; and services outsourcing work-related training can be shifted earlier so that it is completed at college or university, making it possible for graduates from institutions of higher education to take a job immediately

F.Strengthening practice and internship for students of institutions of higher education

The ‘training centres for services outsourcing talents’ set up in the ‘Selected model cities for services outsourcing in China’ should follow the related standards jointly formulated and issued by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education in accrediting qualified services outsourcing enterprises, public training bodies and institutions of higher education as the ‘Internship and practice bases for university students in services outsourcing’; the quality of internship and practice must be recognised by the colleges or universities and enterprises participating in the internship and practice. Institutions of higher education should actively reform the existing modes of practice and cooperate with services outsourcing enterprises in formulating plans for practice and in jointly guiding students’ practice. Three-party agreements should be signed between institutions of higher education, enterprises and students so as to protect students’ lawful rights and interests and not to increase students’ financial burdens incurred from the practice. Services outsourcing enterprises should be active in accepting students from institutions of higher education for practice and working while studying. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education will deem enterprises’ accepting college or university students for practice and internship as an important criterion when assessing the selected model cities for services outsourcing.

G.Deepening cooperation between institutions of higher education and services outsourcing enterprises

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Commerce will invite the people’s governments of the ‘Selected model cities for services outsourcing in China’, services outsourcing enterprises and institutions of higher education to form cooperative unions, with the intention of propelling strategic cooperation between enterprises and institutions of higher education. The enterprises and institutions of higher education that join the union will seek multilateral and bilateral collaboration in such areas as talents cultivation, research and development of products and technologies, and employment of graduates of institutions of higher education. Local governments should intensify their policy support of the cooperative unions; the unions, on the other hand, should promote talent exchanges and, in accordance with the common understanding reached by institutions of higher education and enterprises, encourage the enterprises to dispatch experienced experts to act as adjunct instructors, whereas the institutions of higher education should dispatch their teaching staff to hold temporary jobs in services outsourcing enterprises.

H.Establishing a network platform for the training of teachers of services outsourcing courses

The Ministry of Education will establish a network platform for the training of teachers for services outsourcing courses, so that the high-quality resources of the enterprises and institutions of higher education in the cooperative unions can be made full use of and great efforts can be dedicated to the training of teachers of services outsourcing courses. Institutions of higher education should incorporate the time that the teachers spend taking part in related training and holding temporary posts into their work loads.

I.Striving for the employment of services outsourcing talents

Priority should be given to the promotion and development of the services outsourcing industry so as to boost the employment of graduates of institutions of higher education. Local departments of commerce and education should, in accordance with the goal that the annual employments for college or university graduates in the services outsourcing industry should reach 200,000, formulate specific working targets and implementation measures for their own areas. Departments of commerce should effectively implement relevant preferential policies, strengthen guidance and service, and encourage services outsourcing enterprises to absorb college or university graduates. Administrative departments of education should play a guiding role to institutions of higher education so that they can establish extensive contact with services outsourcing enterprises and attract them to conduct recruiting events on the campuses; they should intensify career guidance to graduates and encourage them to find employment in services outsourcing enterprises. Services outsourcing enterprises and institutions of higher education should make full use of information platforms, such as the New Career Service Site for Students, China Sourcing, etc., to publish timely information about subjects and disciplines related to services outsourcing offered by institutions of higher education, graduates, and services outsourcing enterprises recruiting and accepting college and university students for professional practice, so as to increase the opportunities for graduates from institutions of higher education to find employment.

J.Intensifying financial support for the cultivation of services outsourcing talents

Institutions of higher education and services outsourcing enterprises are encouraged to jointly cultivate services outsourcing talents. As prescribed in the Replies of the General Office of the State Council on the Issues Concerning the Promotion of the Development of the Services Outsourcing Industry (Guobanhan 2009 No. 9), services outsourcing enterprises that use advanced technology and that come up to the requirements, when recruiting workers with college degrees or over on a labour contract of over one year, will be subsidised up to RMB4,500 for the training of each of the persons employed; qualified training bodies, after training services outsourcing talents who have a university degree or over and who have passed the examinations of services outsourcing professional knowledge and skills, will be subsidised RMB500 for the training of each of the persons trained, if that person signs a contract of labour for one year or over with a services outsourcing enterprise.

Local departments of education and commerce should, taking into consideration the demands of local services outsourcing enterprises, research and formulate policies in support of local institutions of higher education in their cultivation of services outsourcing talents and promote a sustained, coordinated and orderly development of the undertaking of international services outsourcing projects in their local areas.

Ministry of Education,

The People’s Republic of China