Youth employment and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in China

Abstract

China has been recognised as “world plant” for many years; the energy-intensive, pollution-intensive, and low value-added industries have created many jobs in China and effectively solved the problem of unemployment. However, with the demographic dividend disappearing and labour costs increasing, private enterprises are being plagued by the shortages of skilled workers and meanwhile, millions of college graduates are unable to find employment. Chinese youth are suffering from the employment crisis. They are experiencing higher unemployment rate than adults, despite obtaining higher educational attainment, irregular employment of young migrant workers, and a higher rate for young people who are not in employment, education or training. These challenges are attributable to the structural crisis of the Chinese labour market: shortages of young people and shortages of young skilled workers, high pressures of employment resulting from the expansion of tertiary education, and the mismatch of migrant youth’s educational attainment and employers’ needs. The Chinese government has implemented vocational education and training policies to improve upon youth employment. These polices include curriculum reform to enhance employability of youth, the creation of a modern vocational education system, and skills-upgrading programmes for migrant youth, all of which have significantly improved the labour market outcomes for Chinese youth.