Chinese students have sights set on expert careers - Continental

ERJ staff report (LMH)

Shanghai, China - Chinese students look more optimistically towards their professional future than German university graduates do, according to a student survey carried out by automotive supplier Continental.

While three fourths of the Chinese students assess their personal career prospects “very” or “rather confidently", around 62 percent of German students are more reserved, the German company said in a 30 Aug news release.

More than half of the Chinese students surveyed understand a career to be the advancement within one single area or one single department. In contrast, about 58 percent of the German students imagine a career to be advancement with functions in various areas of one company.

Nearly one third of Chinese students surveyed strive for an “expert career” as a highly-specialised expert within one department with no human resources responsibility, but this is a goal for only one fifth of German university and college graduates.

More than half of the German students rate their personal competitiveness in an international comparison as “very good” to “good”, but only a good third of the Chinese surveyed share this positive assessment.

These findings are part of the Continental Student Survey, which was carried out in 2011 for the first time in China and the eighth time in Germany. Some 1000 prospective engineers, natural scientists and economists were asked about their opinions on careers and the world of work.

“China is an emerging market... We want to achieve above-average growth there in the next few years,” commented Heinz-Gerhard Wente, Continental executive board member.

He added, “In order for us to succeed in this venture, we have to become an employer of choice in China, and we need to know what future employees think and what motivates them. With the Continental Student Survey, we have now taken the pulse of expectations for the first time in China and can say that there are differences between the Chinese results and the findings of the previous studies in Germany and Romania, which we have to consider thoroughly.”

The survey found that both Chinese and German university graduates are flexible when it comes to working in other regions of the world for two or three years after finishing their studies. The front runner amongst Chinese students is the US, with 61.4 percent of those surveyed saying they would “very definitely” or “most likely” accept a job there. Some 60.6 percent also find European countries very attractive, according to the survey results.

For German students, Switzerland (57.5 percent) and the US (48.8 percent) are most popular locations. Near the bottom of the list for German graduates is China, where only 14.8 percent want to work. In contrast, 43.8% of the Chinese surveyed would come to Germany for a job.

Continental, which has about 14 000 employees in 11 locations in China, said it had much to offer when considering the expectations of Chinese students.

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Press release from Continental.