High energy and low energy: Is our education mismatched?
Author: Li Xiaoguang, "Guangming Daily" (March 25, 2021 02 edition)
【News Essay】
At the moment when college graduates are looking for a critical period, the discussion of "difficulty in finding jobs" has been aroused again.
"Graduates from Qingbei Going to Yuhang", "Returnees Entering Primary and Secondary Schools"...Almost every hot topic related to education and occupation actually points to a common social phenomenon: the problem of educational mismatch in the labor market.
Educational mismatch mainly reflects the phenomenon that an individual’s actual education level exceeds the level of education required for his job. It is also called over-education or education mismatch.
In the past half-century, global education has expanded and enrollment in higher education has increased rapidly. The demand for skills in the labor market in many countries has lagged far behind the development of education. The occupational structure cannot absorb the rapidly growing education diplomas. Educational mismatch phenomenon.
China is also experiencing education mismatch.
Data from China's Comprehensive Social Survey (2003-2017) show that approximately 35% of workers in China's urban labor market have experienced educational mismatches.
Reflected in the reality of employment, many college students cannot find suitable positions after graduation, and have to accept vocational positions with lower education requirements.
The macro-change trend of China's educational mismatch phenomenon is deeply rooted in the dual change trajectory of the economic system and the educational system.
In terms of changes in the economic system, China’s continued marketization and industrialization process has rapidly created a large number of high-skilled occupations, and the overall occupational structure has become more advanced, which has effectively improved the labor market’s ability to digest higher education diplomas.
In the future, under the background of China's economic development and industrial structure upgrading, the phenomenon of education mismatch is likely to continue to decrease.
In other words, the proportion of education mismatch in China has shown a downward trend over time.
But on the other hand, from the perspective of changes in the education system, China's education mismatch ratio increases with the birth generation.
The popularization of compulsory education and the expansion of higher education have created more educational opportunities for the later generations, resulting in higher overall education levels for the later generations, and the relative "gold content" of the same educational diploma has accordingly continued to decline.
Since people's job hunting competition usually occurs in groups of similar ages, the possible result is that the later generations face greater pressure from peer competition, and ultimately, the more likely education mismatch will occur.
For specific education mismatch individuals, they may have the opportunity to get rid of the mismatch dilemma by accumulating experience and changing jobs. However, the experience of education mismatch, especially the phenomenon of "high energy and low employment", will leave a mark on the work history. "Scar", this "scar" is likely to release a negative signal to employers in the future career mobility. The education mismatch dilemma does not seem to be easily rid of as easily as imagined.
For the whole society, the rapid economic and social development of China in recent decades cannot be separated from the precious human resources provided by the development of education. The emergence of education mismatch will inevitably make it impossible for some workers to transform their professional skills. In the labor market, it is a waste of human capital.
It is in this sense that we need to focus on the core issue of controlling the risk of education mismatch after discussing a single hot event.
In this regard, as far as the education field is concerned, it is necessary to strengthen the connotation construction of general higher education and improve the professional skills and comprehensive quality of graduates.
This will not only help improve graduates’ ability to achieve educational matching, but more importantly, cultivate innovative professional and technical talents for future innovation-driven economic development.
At the same time, strengthen the training quality and social prestige of vocational education, and reserve sufficient human resource wealth for future industrial structure upgrading.
At present, China's industrial structure is further upgraded. In this context, it is necessary to strengthen investment in technological innovation and basic research and development positions, and increase the proportion of such positions in the occupational structure.
This will not only help realize the upgrading of industrial structure and innovation-driven economic growth, but also help the labor market digest people with higher education degrees, thereby reducing the risk of education mismatch and reducing the waste of human capital.
In addition, it is necessary to innovate and strengthen the connection strength between school education and workplace positions.
In fact, part of the root cause of the education mismatch phenomenon is the disconnection between the development of the education system and the economic system, causing graduates to find no suitable positions and employers unable to recruit ideal talents.
In this regard, future university education needs to innovatively strengthen school-enterprise cooperation, promote the two-way flow of knowledge, and promote the transformation of production, education and research.
It is worth clarifying that despite the current risk of education mismatch in China, some individual laborers have to face the reality of high energy and low employment, but as far as the entire Chinese society is concerned, education is far from excessive.
Moreover, education has never been solely for labor and employment. It has an irreplaceable social role in improving the quality of the whole people, inheriting cultural heritage, and guiding social changes.
In this regard, in the future, we still need to continue to implement the strategy of strengthening the country through education and continuously improve the content of education.
(Author: Li Xiaoguang, Department of Empirical Institute of Social Sciences researcher, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Xi'an Jiaotong University)