Research on the Problems Existing in the Employment of College Students in the New Era and the Employment Guidance Strategy of Counselors ()
1. Introduction
China’s economy has entered a new era. Under the background of the new economy, the reasonable employment of college students is of great significance to promoting social development. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that employment is the biggest livelihood of the people, and it is necessary to promote multi-channel employment and entrepreneurship of college graduates and other youth groups. Therefore, analyzing the problems existing in the process of employment of college students and the guidance strategies of the instructors on the employment issues of students play an important role in helping college students establish correct professional values and guiding the employment of colleges and universities.
2. Analysis on the Current Situation of Employment in Chinese Universities
The number of college graduates nationwide has increased, and employment problems have become prominent. The “National Medium and Long-term Educational Reform and Development Plan Outline (2010-2020)” clearly states: “my country’s education has not yet fully adapted to the requirements of the current national economic and social development. College students have a weak ability to adapt to the society and employment and entrepreneurship, innovative and practical. Type and compound talents are in short supply” (Wang et al., 2020). Local colleges and universities cannot cultivate talents that meet the needs of the market economy, and the employment rate of university graduates is low. In the “Skills Gap Research in China’s Labor Market”, about 70% of business units believe that “the knowledge learned by college students during school is not practical” and cannot meet the actual needs of enterprises (He, 2017) Since 1999, my country’s colleges and universities have begun to expand their enrollment, and the number of college graduates has increased significantly year by year. From 2015 to 2019 alone, the number of graduates has increased by 850,000, and the employment situation has become increasingly severe. In 2019, the report of the two sessions pointed out that higher vocational colleges enrolled 1 million people. The number of 2020 graduates reached 8.74 million, an increase of 400,000 year-on-year, and the number of graduates hit a record high. However, the employment situation is complicated and severe due to the superimposed influence of multiple factors such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic and economic downward pressure (Liang et al., 2020). The employment of college graduates will become the focus of family, school and society.
3. Problems Existing in Employment of College Graduates in China
3.1. Unreasonable Career Planning, Low Employment Awareness
Through investigations, it is found that many colleagues in colleges and universities are based on their parents’ views or the name of the school, and do not have their own opinions. After arriving at the university, I realized that I was not interested in the major I chose, and then I was not interested in planning my university life and future development direction. Career choices are not clear enough, which makes students’ values fuzzy and has no reasonable plan for their careers (Feng, 2016). In the graduation season, instead of looking for a job, instead of playing games all day long, there is nothing to do, and the counselor needs to be constantly supervised to participate in the recruitment. The sense of employment is not strong, and finally it is difficult to find a job.
3.2. Insufficient Self-Awareness and Insufficient Self-Positioning
Graduates have low self-esteem and self-esteem in their self-cognition. Affected by inferiority complex, graduates often deny themselves, think that they are inferior to others, have negative cognition and fear of difficulties in the job search process, have no confidence to show their best side to employers, lack initiative, and thus miss out Good employment opportunities have led to difficulties in employment. Graduates with conceited psychology tend to be superior and low-handed. They generally think that they are high-tech talents. They are too low to predict the current employment situation, pursue high-paying and decent careers, and pursue a good location, which invisibly raises their threshold and self-positioning. The inaccuracy leads to employment difficulties.
3.3. Not Strong Theoretical Knowledge, Poor Practical Ability
Due to personal habits and other problems, some college students often miss classes or do not attend classes, resulting in poor theoretical knowledge and lack of professional skills during college. Moreover, for the practice and internships arranged by the school, due to some of their own reasons, they have dealt with things, resulting in poor practical ability and little knowledge of the industry they are about to engage in. Theoretical knowledge and practical ability are often important evaluation indicators of employers for college graduates. On the one hand, economic development has entered a new era, and the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure affect the demand structure of human resources, and also put forward new requirements for the talent training model. However, there is a gap between the professional setting of some universities and social needs, which affects the employment of college students; on the other hand, some college students do not invest enough in their own professional studies, are not sufficiently prepared for the current employment, are at a loss in the face of the severe job market and employment environment, lack professional competitiveness, and “defeated” in the job search process. Thereby forming a difficult situation of employment (Zhang & Ayi-Tursun, 2020).
In addition, the unreasonable setting of professional talent training programs in colleges and universities is out of touch with the society, which makes the needs of employers and the learning at school when graduates apply for jobs does not match, which not only makes it difficult for college students to find employment, but also seriously restricts the healthy development of the economy and society (Zhu, 2020). The transformation of my country’s economic structure and the continuous improvement of employment standards require not only relevant work experience and internship experience for graduates, but also relevant work qualification certificates and good comprehensive abilities. Graduates of many colleges and universities have increased their psychological pressure (Zhu, 2019). The employment guidance system is not perfect and the method is single, which cannot meet the effective matching of individual needs of students (Zhao, 2019).
4. Counselor Career Guidance Strategy
4.1. Guide Students to Make Career Planning
Many students fail to make a good career plan after they go to university, leading to no goals in life, and they don’t know what they should do in the future and what direction they should work towards. Therefore, college counselors should assist students in their career planning. Only when they have goals can they be motivated, so that students can clearly know their direction of the struggle.
4.2. Comprehensive Employment Guidance in Advance
College counselors should provide employment guidance to students as soon as possible, establish diversified employment guidance models, and strengthen the cultivation of employability. Before the start of employment guidance work, college counselors systematically sort out and analyze the professional characteristics of the school, the scale of graduates, the proportion of graduates choosing employment, and the regional employment orientation, and formulate the employment guidance model and Guidance plan, establish diversified employment guidance strategies, such as: service mode, consulting mode, practice mode, etc., make full use of diversified employment guidance modes to help graduates choose jobs. At the same time, it is necessary to organize graduates to participate in corporate talent recruitment fairs, employment guidance seminars, job application practices, etc., and use diversified forms to improve the effect and quality of employment guidance (Wang, 2020). Counselors should actively encourage graduates to strengthen the training and training of employability when carrying out employment guidance work, and analyze the abilities that the graduates should possess through their own professional characteristics. Including: practical ability, physical condition, environmental adaptability, communication ability, teamwork ability, etc., to help graduates to strengthen job ability training. At the same time, it is necessary to establish a correct outlook on employment, outlook on life, and values, so that graduates understand their own advantages, and at the same time encourage graduates to actively invest in job applications, and achieve the correct guidance of employment channels.
4.3. Guide Students to Understand Themselves and Locate Accurately
College counselors should guide students to fully and objectively understand themselves, position themselves correctly, look at problems with a developmental perspective, carefully analyze the current employment situation and employment environment, and have a long-term understanding and judgment of society (Shen, 2014). Guide students to adjust the goals of career planning in time according to their own situation and social environment in the process of job hunting to achieve reasonable employment.
4.4. Guide Students to Improve Their Overall Quality
Counselors should pay attention to the cultivation of students’ comprehensive quality. First of all, we must improve the quality of science and culture. The courses of the university are related to the professional ability to engage in this major in the future, so you must work hard to learn professional knowledge during the university, and lay a solid foundation for yourself to engage in this work in the future. Secondly, improve learning ability, expand thinking ability, actively participate in social practice, and meet the needs of the times and enterprises. Thirdly, strengthen physical exercises and enhance physical fitness. “The body is the foundation of the revolution”, to achieve a reasonable diet, scientific work and rest, and active exercise. In addition, counselors should strengthen psychological counseling work to improve the psychological quality of students. The psychology of college graduates is not mature enough, and the difficulties in the process of employment can easily lead to psychological anxiety, contradictions, disappointment, anger and other emotions. This requires counselors to carry out psychological counseling work for graduates on a regular basis and guide graduates to apply for employment. The negative emotions generated guide employment and career choices, and make full use of network information to track the employment status of graduates, achieve timely guidance and resolution, and promote the overall improvement of graduates’ employment quality.
5. Conclusion
This article analyzes the status quo that the number of college graduates will reach a record high, and aims at the unreasonable career planning in the employment of college graduates, lack of employment awareness, insufficient self-cognition ability, insufficient self-positioning, insufficient theoretical knowledge, and practice Poor abilities and other issues, put forward the guidance strategies of counselors such as guiding students to make career planning, carrying out all-round employment guidance in advance, guiding students to understand themselves, and guiding students to improve their own comprehensive qualities, and put forward strategies from the perspective of counselors to help college students Establish correct professional values, promote the employment of college students, and link the “personal dream” with the “Chinese dream”. In the process of realizing personal values, the Chinese nation is truly rejuvenating.