Innovative Solutions for China’s Labor Market Challenges Provided by Zhaopin’s NET Program
Zhaopin Limited (NYSE: ZPIN) (“Zhaopin” or the “Company”), a leading career platform in China focusing on connecting users with relevant job opportunities throughout their career lifecycle, has expanded the use of its innovative and proprietary National Employability Test (“NET”) with the active support of the All-China Women’s Federation and other governmental and social resources.
Across May and June 2016, Zhaopin and the All-China Women’s Federation will run a NET project. It is expected to cover 200 universities and aims to assist over one million university students in their job seeking and business start-up ventures within two years. The NET also benefits from the active support of several renowned organizations, including the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund, the Education Management Information Center of the Ministry of Education, Renmin University of China, and the Investment Association of China, as well as Xiaoming Huang, a Chinese celebrity and the project’s brand ambassador.
The project will provide assessment tests for university students at no cost to help them understand their strengths and determine their employability and potential career path.
Zhaopin will leverage its big data and analytical capabilities to provide participants with suitable job or internship opportunities. In addition, the project will provide free professional training to university career development staff.
Zhaopin and Xiaoming Huang will jointly donate RMB10 million in cash and testing software with a fair value of over RMB70 million to the China Children and Teenagers’ Foundation in support of the project during 2016 and 2017.
Evan Guo, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Zhaopin, commented that, “Thanks to its highly successful initial project in 2015, the NET is emerging as an innovative solution that helps address some of the challenges facing the labor market. It has started to attract the attention of a growing number of Chinese governmental institutions which recognize its potential in creatively reducing the mismatch between demand and supply in the labor market.”
“The NET has also begun to generate interest outside of China among social and academic institutions as many emerging economies face, or will face, similar challenges. I am particularly proud of our ability to play a small part in China’s economic rebalancing by focusing on the needs of job seekers and employers, on innovation, and creative technology,” commented Evan Guo.
About NET
According to the results of the “2015 University Students’ Employability Survey” conducted by Zhaopin, university graduates are faced with significant challenges when seeking first-time employment opportunities, and employers also encounter difficulties in correctly evaluating the characteristics and potential of fresh-graduate candidates.
The difficulty university students have in seeking jobs is believed to be attributable to their lack of understanding of their capabilities, their over-optimistic career expectations and the mismatch in information between supply and demand on the job market. Over 40% of surveyed participants lack a clear vision of their future career and life, while over 70% of them fail to realize that their capabilities and personality do not match their professional aspirations.
NET, which involves both graduates and employers, was developed by Zhaopin in conjunction with academic authorities from a number of universities and has the full support from the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China. The NET program is designed to help graduates develop a better understanding of their overall potential, including an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, and their skills, independent of their matriculating institution. It provides employers with a baseline measure to evaluate participating graduates as the test assesses and focuses on the intrinsic talents of graduates. NET offers employers an independent means of identifying talent, irrespective of a graduate’s academic credentials or the the prestige of his or her university. Zhaopin believes NET helps address a major weakness in the current system of recruiting new university graduates whereby many college graduates are not being assessed on their true merit and talent.
