Featuring the topic “Your Future Depends on Your Actual Ability,” the conference on “Promoting Competitiveness in Job Market,” co-held by TKU and Cheers Magazine, took place on May 6 at Chung-cheng Hall, Taipei Campus. The conference invited many scholars and experts such as Pai Chung-liang, President of Ogilvy & Mather Taiwan, and Lee Ming-yuan, President of McDonald, Taiwan, to share their opinions on the related issues, attracting nearly 250 persons from TKU and other places to attend.
Peng Shu-chen, Senior Executive Officer of Dept. of Higher Education, MOE, indicated in her address that since there are hundreds of colleges and universities in Taiwan, it is clear that the higher education is no longer for the elites but for the ordinary people. Hence, the competitiveness in job market has always been the goal that Dept. of Higher Education wants to pursuit. She hoped that through the conference and the dialogues between academic and business fields, students can put what they learn into practice, and reduce the discrepancy between theory and practice.
Dr. Flora C.I. Chang, President of TKU, indicated that higher education bears unshakable responsibility to cultivate talents and increase their competitiveness in job market. Focusing on the issue of “Educational Quality and Excellent Mind,” Dr. Chang elaborated why TKU has been ranked as No. 1 among private universities for twelve successive years. She emphasized that the educational quality comes from three aspects: team cooperation, students’ learning, and uniting alumni.
In the aspect of team cooperation, TKU places importance on administration supports teaching and carry out the concepts of QCC and TQM. In the aspect of students’ learning, TKU aims at “three aspects” and “five disciplines” of education, adding the courses of “learning and development” in the core curriculum, and cultivating students’ ability of leadership and cooperation through club activities and camps. As for the aspect of uniting alumni, TKU establishes the contact network of all alumni and traces their development in job market continuously. Winning the 19th National Quality Award is without doubt the biggest praise to TKU’s quality management.
Mr. Chen, Shi-Shuenn, President of National Taiwan University of Technology, appreciated TKU’s hardworking for winning the honor of “entrepreneurs’ favorite graduates.” In his opinion, TKU is the model for other universities because it is not only rated better than many national universities but also the first five in the categories of “teamwork” and “stability and forbearance” in the survey. Ms. Liu Feng-cheng, Vice President of Cheers Magazine, also praised TKU’s intention and action to pursue high quality. “TKU is deserved to win the National Quality Award and the entrepreneurs’ favorite graduates,” Liu said.
By using the theory of “soft power,” Mr. Pai Chung-liang talked about the characteristics and content of cultural creative industry, the quaternary sector of industry. He also mentioned the idea of “Learn-ing to learn” and expected everyone to keep the attitude of acquiring knowledge. Later, Mr. Wang Po-sung, General Manager of Watson Wyatt Taiwan, gave a speech on the polarization of salary allocation, analyzing why university graduates cannot get higher pay nowadays. He indicated that graduates should actively elevate his or her ability by participating professional certificate examination, joining educational training in the company, and reading related books, etc, so that they can not only increase their competitiveness, but also understand more about what they want to choose as the future career.
Moreover, Dr. Chen Hsiao-lan, Director, Center for Educational Research and Evaluation, Taiwan Normal University, and Dr. Wang Li-yun, Associate Professor of Dept. of Education, analyzed the employment survey of college graduates of 2006 academic year in Taiwan. Sophia Tong, CEO of B&Q Corporation, pointed out that the time of high quality service has come, so Taiwan should cultivate the talents with soft and hard power.
She suggested that apart from the training of knowledge and skills, college education should improve students’ foreign language ability, create the chance of public briefing and speaking for students, establish dual or multiple-focus colleges, develop courses related to soft power, such as EQ, AQ, SQ and cooperation, and design training programs for the graduates-to-be to cultivate their leadership, sale techniques, and service concepts. Mr. Lee Ming-yuan took running McDonald as the example to share his experience of cooperating with the government and academic field. “I hope that I can increase graduates’ competitiveness in job market by delivering speeches in many colleges and universities,” Lee said.
Winner of Tamkang Elite (Golden Eagle) Award, Mr. Chuang Ying-chun, General Manager of PLM Software, Siemens, Taiwan, appreciated TKU graduates’ performance in the business field. When sharing his experience of career planning and placement, Mr. Chuang indicated that the progress of information technology and industry division of labor are the current trends of modern industries. Hence, he encouraged college students try to do different part-time jobs during summer vacation.
Sun Chih-hsuan, a sophomore of Dept. of Mass Communication, indicated that in the conference, she has learned a lot from the precious experience provided by many scholars and experts, who made her understand how to renew knowledge and skills to increase competitiveness in job market. “My greatest gain is to realize the importance of learning. No matter how old we are, we need to keep learning all the time,” said Sun. ( ~Shu-chun Yen )
