August 22, 2010

The Science Council of Japan has recently submitted a proposal to the ministry of education calling for measures to help students to find jobs more smoothly and to have companies lower their requirements for the hiring of new graduates.

The proposal was made on the request of the ministry aiming at improvement of the quality in academic education.

Discussing the current situation of college students’ efforts to find jobs, the Science Council of Japan pointed out the need to face the fact that more and more university students start their job-hunting activities earlier and that they become too tired to keep studying at university.

The council proposes that the ministry create a system to give aid to accommodation fees and traveling expenses for local university students coming to big cities to look for jobs.

The council calls for relaxation of the job-seeking requirements for new graduates. For example, the council urges corporations to treat those who graduated from university up to three years ago as new graduates and give them a chance to apply for positions available for new graduates.

The council also proposes that universities and corporations cooperate with each other to establish rules to balance students’ job-finding activities with their continuing studies.
- Akahata, August 22, 2010