Estudos do Trabalho Ano III – Número 4 - 2009 Revista da RET Rede de Estudos do Trabalho www.estudosdotrabalho.org 1 Employability Enhancement of Business Graduates in China: Reacting upon Challenges of Globalization And Labour Market Demands 1 Guo Zhiwen Hubei University Wuhan, Hubei, China INTRODUCTION Within the two decades following the reform and opening-up launched by the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the late seventies, the demand for higher education in China hugely exceeded its supply. During this period, only a limited number of high school students had the opportunity to enter college or university. Because of the big shortage of highly-educated people, due to the ten-year Culture Revolution (1966-1976), university graduates could easily find employment, and entering the university was considered to be a great honour to one’s ancestors. However, notwithstanding the lack of highly educated employees, and the ease of finding a job, the graduates appeared to not be well prepared for the labour market. The late nineties, however, stood for a change. The expansion of university recruitment, the competitive pressure from foreign counterparts, graduates’ employment pressure, criticism from the labour market, and students’ complaints, altogether, have been triggering reform and readjustment of the education system (Guo, 2004a). The Ministry of Education in close cooperation with higher 1 This research has been partly funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) in Beijing (CSC No. 22842007), and by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. Project number: 015.000.114).