Liu Man, a counselor with the "Elite Eagles" program, gives a speech at the program's launch ceremony in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Exploratory steps

Social organizations and industrial associations have also taken exploratory steps to help young people get their thoughts on careers into shape and have made great efforts to raise the employment rate among the younger generation.

In 2019, the Hangzhou Entrepreneurship Promotion Association, a charitable organization in the provincial capital, initiated the "Elite Eagles" program.

Every year through the program, the association invites about 100 company leaders and senior executives — the Elite Eagles — to act as counselors for college students and provide guidance and advice on careers.

Students admitted to the program also get a yearlong internship at related companies.

Yang Pan, a senior executive with Enjoy Town — a consultancy and operations company in Hangzhou that focuses on community services — who is also a visiting counselor with the program, said young people usually have unclear career targets and "excessive" expectations of their future jobs.

"Our role as counselors is to help the students gain a realistic view of themselves and their career plans, and also to help them gain more practical and comprehensive knowledge of their target industry," he said.

"Though we can't keep all the students at our company after they finish their internships, we stay in touch with them and offer them advice, like friends."

Zhang Jialin, the association's secretary-general, said the program attracts thousands of students from over 200 universities nationwide each year, and about 500 are admitted to the program for one-year internships and guidance at the association's member companies.