An article in Monday's China Youth Daily calls for collective efforts from society to help university graduates in self-employment.

The article says, the Changchun Municipal government in northeast China's Jilin Province recently issued a series of preferential polices to university and professional college graduates who intend to start their own businesses. The preferential policies include a reduction of sales tax and government financial fund in bank loans.

However, such favorable conditions met hardly any enthusiasm from university students. Almost all 30 interviewees from several local universities gave a negative answer to this issue. The reasons they gave are very similar: "never thought about it", or "dare not".

According to the article, a lack of education from both the family and the school is to be blamed. It noted that the idea of self-employment is rarely mentioned or discussed at home or at school. Therefore, self-employment is very often neglected by Chinese students when it comes to career planning. In addition, teachers at higher educational institutions also lack practical knowledge or experiences and can provide hardly any help to their students in this regard.

The article calls on parents to change the traditional ideology and encourage their children to stand on their own. Educators are urged to make structural changes to curriculum and open special courses so as to provide professional advices to the students. Government departments and financial organizations are called on to simplify their procedures to provide better services and help.

(CRIENGLISH.com February 10, 2009)