Improving graduates' employment competitiveness: A practice in Peking University

Issue title: Paper from the 2011 Asia-Pacific Conference on Library and Information Education and Practice (A-LIEP): Issues, Challenges and Opportunities

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Qi, Yanli

Affiliations: Department of Information Management, Peking University, Beijing, China. E-mail: ylqi@pku.edu.cn

Abstract: The paper introduces data on the employment of postgraduates in the Department of Information Management of Peking University in 2000-2009. Master's graduates in LIS in Peking University have a wide job choice. In China, the job market for postgraduates in LIS is composed of enterprises and business organizations, rather than libraries and information centres only. The paper discusses the challenges in the job market in China: with the increase in popularity of higher education, the number of graduates is continuing to rise and graduates' employment pressure is up. Employer's views on qualifications for people have changed greatly. Some organizations expect to recruit graduates of “great capacity”. It is important to build a road to improve Master's employment competitiveness in LIS in China. With an example of teaching and practice in the Department of Information Management in Peking University, this paper proposes some suggestions for improving postgraduates' employment competitiveness in LIS. 1) Broadening academic vision, information science as major and others as minor. 2) Emphasis on training of comprehensive quality and improving their employment competitiveness. 3) Providing a relaxed academic environment and enhancing their autonomous learning and research abilities.

Keywords: LIS education, postgraduate education, employment competitiveness, curriculum for postgraduate, inter-disciplinary, practical skills

DOI: 10.3233/EFI-2010-0894

Journal: Education for Information, vol. 28, no. 2-4, pp. 101-113, 2011