Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) In a time of globalization and when the college acceptance rate is nearing 100 percent, traditional thinking on university education should be re-evaluated to meet the challenges of today, government officials said Thursday at a conference.
"Several decades ago, a university graduate was almost guaranteed an upper-level position within a public or private organization, but now times have changed," said Premier Su Tseng-chang in his opening remarks at the National Youth Human Resources Development Conference.
The impact of globalization and an increasing number of universities and graduates are two key factors posing problems for youth who are seeking employment today, since everyone is facing tougher domestic and international competition, he said.
"What we need to do is create a diversified environment that allows young people to find the most suitable profession," Su said.
"Obtaining employment -- not passing a college entrance exam -- has thus become the first and greatest challenge for local university graduates," said Chen Bo-chih, an economist and president of Taiwan Thinktank.
However, the growing unemployment rate among youth is not -- at least directly -- the result of booming numbers of universities and graduates, Chen said.
The key will be closing the gap between university education and corporate needs, which currently do not fit, said Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng.
Tu stressed this does not signify that university education should and will become a form of pre-employment training for students.
"A university education should place more of an emphasis on core competencies such as humanity, responsibility, leadership, communication, teamwork and entrepreneurship," he said.
"Professional skills and expertise, the other part of employee qualifications, can be developed on and off campus," Tu said.
The National Youth Human Resources Development Conference was held to tackle four issues -- "employability," creating jobs, entrepreneurship and equal opportunity -- as proposed by U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan in 2003.
For the first time, the conference was coordinated by five governmental organizations, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the National Youth Commission, the Council for Labor Affairs and the Council for Economic Planning and Development.