Developing Chinese graduates: what German companies should focus on

The study asked about 37 competences in four clusters. For each one, companies stated how important it is and to what degree young professionals bring it to the job. The difference shows where development is most urgent.

The study measures the largest gap in problem-solving competence: 91 percent importance, 53 percent fulfilment, a difference of 38 percentage points. Next come analytical and decision-making skills at 85 to 51 percent, and the sense of responsibility. At 92 percent, it is the most important single competence in the entire survey, yet it is fulfilled to 58 percent.

Companies rated the courage to admit one's own mistakes and the courage to name mistakes in work processes as important at 82 percent each, and saw both fulfilled to only 50 percent. For the sense of quality, 88 percent importance compares with 56 percent fulfilment.

These are followed by competences that are closely linked in everyday work: communication skills (89 to 59 percent), teamwork (91 to 63 percent), the ability to handle conflict (80 to 50 percent), working independently (87 to 59 percent) and decisiveness (78 to 49 percent). Anyone onboarding young professionals is therefore rarely dealing with a single weakness, but with an interplay of personal responsibility, communication and decision-making.

At cluster level, social competences lead with a gap of 25 percentage points (81 to 56 percent). They are followed by personal competences (81 to 59 percent) and functional and methodological competences (80 to 58 percent). For experience and additional qualifications, the gap is only 10 percentage points.

The study does not only show gaps. Overall, 77 percent of companies were partly to very satisfied with the graduates they had hired. They saw commitment best fulfilled (71 percent against 90 percent importance), followed by learning competence (68 against 88 percent) and resilience (68 against 84 percent).

Results orientation (66 percent), flexibility (65 percent) and subject-specific skills (64 percent) were also above the average fulfilment of all competences of 58 percent. General IT skills and experience with office applications each reached 69 percent, close to the expectations of 73 and 76 percent.

For onboarding, this is a usable starting point. A company rarely has to teach specialist knowledge and tools from scratch. Development time belongs where the study measures the large gaps: responsibility, decisions, quality and dealing with mistakes.

The study attributes the gaps to the education system. A system traditionally geared to examinations and recitation, it argues, robs pupils of creativity and initiative through constant memorisation. As a result, graduates lack key social, personal and methodological competences to keep adapting to a changing world. The study calls for a shift from examination-oriented education to holistic quality education.

In its conclusions it states that Chinese university graduates receive more recognition for academic knowledge and professional skills, while there is a clear deficit in soft skills. Intercultural problems, by contrast, played a minor role as a reason for separation. Companies cited them least often, at 7 percent, when an employment relationship ended within the first two years. How culture, institutions and relationships shape business is described in the article on business practices in China.

Anyone who invests in young professionals has to expect turnover. The companies surveyed named job hopping as the most frequent reason why employment relationships with young Chinese employees ended. 25 percent of the employment relationships that were dissolved within the first two years ended because the young professionals resigned to take up another position. According to the study, young employees use the shortage of qualified junior staff for career moves and salary jumps. This turnover makes personnel development more difficult.

Where poor performance was the reason, companies most often cited a lack of specialist and methodological knowledge (23 percent). This was followed by a lack of social skills (14 percent), a lack of confidence in practical work (13 percent) and personal competences (12 percent). The study counts problem-solving and analysis and decision-making as part of the functional and methodological cluster, which are exactly the competences with the largest gaps.

According to the study, expectations of young professionals rise with the level of their degree. Even so, the gap between expectation and the competence actually contributed is largest among graduates of vocational schools, although the lowest expectations are placed on them. Across all areas, 46 percent of companies were primarily looking for master's graduates, 41 percent for bachelor's graduates, 8 percent for graduates of vocational schools and 6 percent for doctoral graduates. In commercial administration and technical areas, a narrow majority preferred a bachelor's degree to a master's.

One third of companies had been unable to fill all graduate positions in the two years before the survey, especially in technical areas and in research and development. The study names insufficient methodological and specialist knowledge and a lack of practical experience as the main reasons. Companies often had to compromise on the qualifications they wanted. This makes development after hiring all the more important.

The study addresses its recommendations mainly to schools and universities. Its standards can be transferred to development within a company.

First: learning from real tasks. The study calls for more action and process orientation based on the model of the complete action. This is meant to train social and personal competences without neglecting subject content. In a company, this means letting young professionals learn from tasks whose results they are responsible for themselves.

Second: finding and evaluating knowledge. Information is constantly available, and the half-life of knowledge is shrinking. According to the study, simply passing on knowledge is therefore not enough. Companies and their employees have to keep updating what they have learned.

Third: learning as a task for the whole company. Changing personnel structures and market requirements call for interdisciplinary competences that enable flexible and lifelong learning for the entire company and for every employee, young or experienced.

Fourth: accompanying, not just instructing. The study criticises university career services for confusing the ability to apply for jobs with employability, and for offering short-term help instead of long-term, structured support. The same standard applies to onboarding. The study sums it up with a Chinese proverb: teach people to fish instead of giving them fish.

The study was led and carried out by transformis and East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai, with support from the German-Chinese Business Association. From 7 September to 2 October 2015, 3,500 German companies operating in China were invited to an online survey. 218 data sets could be clearly assigned to German companies in China and were included in the analysis.

For a representative result covering the then 5,200 German companies in China, at least 189 responses were needed at a 95 percent confidence level and a 7 percent margin of error. The questionnaire comprised 36 mostly closed questions. 54 percent of the data sets come from manufacturing and industry, 60 percent from East China. The report was published in 2017.

The figures are the companies' assessments and describe the situation in 2015, not today. Methodology, definitions and all 37 individual values are presented in the article on the employability of Chinese university graduates, and the full version is available as a white paper.

transformis has had its own office in Shanghai since 2011 and has worked with ECNU since 2013. This research cooperation produced a concept that enables managers to identify the potential of junior staff and align their development with the requirements of the organisation. A programme combines leadership development and the development of junior staff, and there is a dedicated onboarding concept for young professionals in China. Developing methodological competences thus becomes a leadership task. The full offering is described on the page China consulting.