education Photo:VCG

Beijing vows to provide job-seeking services for talents from after-school tutoring industry, which will last three to six months to help relieve possible wave of unemployment. The city's authorities said that they have reserved over 10,000 positions for workers from the industry.

The city's job service center on Wednesday held its first online targeted job fair for talents from the after-school training industry, which will end on August 31. At least 3,807 job positions from 260 companies have been provided on its website.

Lu Xiaobo, the spokesman of Beijing human resources and social welfare bureau, said on Tuesday during a press conference that the city has reserved sufficient job resources, and public employment service agencies can provide more than 10,000 jobs for employees from the industry. In addition, in commercial human resources service firms such as 51job, there are more than 80,000 positions available.

A staffer of the city's job service center told the Global Times on Wednesday that "The center will provide special job fair and related job-seeking services for workers from off-campus tutoring agencies for several months, and more job fairs will be held online." The staffer further suggested that job seekers should keep close attention on the website to get the latest recruitment information.

Recently, major education companies have carried out extensive layoffs after a notice released by the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on July 24, saying they will reduce students and parents' burden and rein in disorderly expansion of the industry.

Beijing authorities on Tuesday issued the city's specific control measures for after-school tutoring agencies to minimize pressure on students. The city vowed that by the end of 2021, the heavy homework burden, off-campus tutoring, and high family expenditures on education will be effectively reduced. Authorities expect to see significant results within two years.

Lu said that 90 percent of employees at after-school tutoring agencies are under 35, and above 80 percent of them have received undergraduate or higher education.

"We have sorted four types of jobs to strengthen our job reserve [for employees in the industry], including teaching and assistance, technology support, operational function, marketing and sales," Lu introduced.

According to a report received by the Global Times from Zhilian Zhaopin, a Chinese career development platform, among those who are working in or have worked in the off-campus tutoring industry and applied for jobs in July, 51.4 percent of them had left their previous jobs. And around 75 percent of job seekers are female.

An employee surnamed Zhou working in the after-school tutoring industry teaching English in Beijing told the Global Times that she is feeling jittery although she still has a job. 

"I had started learning new skills such as layout design, civil service exams, postgraduate entrance exams to prepare for a possible layoff in the future, which may be right around the corner," she said.

Even though the new wave of layoffs in the industry make her anxious about the future, she admitted that it's a blessing in disguise as it has opened a new door for her to think of a new direction she should take in her life.