In the past few years China has witnessed the rapid development
of information technology (IT) for business use. In Beijing for
example the industry is increasing in size at an annual rate of 30
percent, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on May 29. The
lively development of the industry has had a knock on effect on
related enterprises and a growing demand for qualified personnel
with a range of skills. And e-commerce now has a firm foothold in
universities and colleges.
According to Tan Haoqiang, a well known Chinese computer expert,
the most popular training projects in today's IT market include
software and network engineering and software testing.?
Changes in the skills required by network engineers have led to
focus being placed on their abilities to meet new challenges, said
Tan. "The emergence of the network makes network-related companies
extraordinarily prosperous and it requires highly qualified staff
to continuously develop technologies to adapt to new market
conditions and challenges," he added.
In addition to software and network engineers, those capable of
testing software are in great demand. This is because testing
procedures have been particularly strengthened within software
outsourcing services.
"What we are short of are qualified personnel in this field and
not orders," said Zheng Weiqi, deputy general manager of the Axis
(Shanghai) Co. Ltd. "For those who are qualified to undertake
testing work, we treat them as full staff members immediately after
they're employed by the company."
Zheng complained that his company was disturbed by its failure
in finding qualified personnel in software testing and his opinion
is shared by the head of a talent search company in Beijing who
said, "We collect all the résumés of experienced software testing
personnel."
Sun Quntian, executive marketing director of the OPETCh Corp.,
said domestic software enterprises have paid closer attention to
testing procedures in recent years. There were too few talented and
experienced testing technicians so this particular market has
significant potential, he said.
"The software testing industry has a huge demand for human
resources and job-hunters should have a better understanding of the
industry, participate in professional training, improve their
knowledge and raise their professional competency levels to meet
the demand," Sun said.
Statistics from both official and individual institutions show
the growth rate of the IT training industry has been rising
steadily and there's no sign of it falling away, Sun said.
E-commerce is warmly welcomed by enterprises because it's highly
efficient, relatively low cost, and there are no real limitations
on how and when it's used. Qualified personnel are therefore in
great demand, he observed. The popularity of e-commerce courses are
sweeping across university and college campuses.
The China Electronics Commerce Association held two national
e-commerce competitions for university and college students
respectively in April-September 2004 and April-September 2005 and a
third one is in preparation, an official from the organizing group
told the Beijing Youth Daily.
The first competition attracted nearly 10,000 students, creating
6.81 million yuan (US$848,800) volume of trade. The second
attracted 22,600 students from 448 universities and colleges in 31
provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
Prize winners in the competitions win the Certificate of Network
Manager and some have been employed by well known enterprises,
according to the competition organizers. The operational mode
provides a direct means of personnel selection for enterprises and
creates employment opportunities for university and college
students.?
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong June 3, 2006)