The final round and award ceremony for the inaugural National College Student Career Planning Competition were held in Shanghai from May 10–12. Co-hosted by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Shanghai Municipality, this annual competition represents the nation’s first specialized event aimed at promoting high-quality, full employment for college graduates. With the theme of “Building Young People’s Dreams and Setting Sail for the Future,” the event focused on fostering moral integrity, promoting career planning, and creating a platform that enhances employment and facilitates a balance between talent supply and demand.
The competition, comprising school, provincial, and national finals, was designed to accommodate both underclassmen with a “career development” track and upperclassmen with an “employment” track, along with a teaching competition track for college educators in career development and employment guidance courses. Five higher education institutions (HEIs) including Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai University of Technology, Shanghai Normal University, and Shanghai Art and Design Academy organized the finals for various tracks of the competition.
Since its inception last August, the competition has garnered enthusiastic participation from teachers and students nationwide. A total of 9.52 million students from 2,740 colleges and universities, accounting for 98.6% of all regular HEIs in the country, registered for the competition. Among them, 7.44 million students registered for the growth track, and 2.08 million students registered for the employment track. Additionally, 3,707 teachers from 1,565 HEIs and 1,921 teaching teams participated in the teaching competition. Throughout the competition, various HEIs around the country organized concurrent employment guidance and campus recruitment activities, hosting 81,700 events with 8.85 million participants in total and offering over one million job positions. After fierce competition, more than 600 college students and 80 teachers advanced to the national finals, where awards, including gold, silver, and bronze medals, as well as individual awards, outstanding organizational awards, and excellent guidance teacher awards, were presented. During the finals, nearly 500 employers issued internship and job offers to students on-site.
The competition showcased the achievements of HEIs in recent years in career education and employment guidance, establishing a platform for school–industry cooperation and uniting various parties to promote employment. Participants highly praised the event. Many teachers said that through this contest, they learned how to better help students transition from the classroom to a career, while student participants generally felt that they were inspired by witnessing the growth stories of outstanding peers and identified their own career directions by receiving career planning guidance from teachers during the event. They are now eager to study harder in various professional fields and will strive to pursue their dreams in various career paths in the future.
Professional career education and employment guidance work is considered the most essential service provided at HEIs in promoting high-quality, full employment of graduates. Taking the opportunity of the first National College Student Career Planning Competition, HEIs nationwide have improved their curriculum related to professional career education, optimized employment guidance services, and enhanced student awareness of career planning. Meanwhile, the competition has guided participants to better understand talent cultivation, career choices, and employment seeking, thereby enhancing their competitiveness in the job market.
The second National College Student Career Planning Competition will be jointly hosted by the MOE and the Hunan Provincial Government.
