CRI听力:Lion's Share of Graduates to Come from China, India

The latest projections from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts that the worlds 'global talent pool' is going to hold it's majority in China and India by 2020.

With 29-percent of the worlds graduates set to come from China, the United States, which has traditionally dominated the market, will be pushed into third place behind India.

The US and European Union combined is forecasted to account for a little more than a quarter of young graduates.

Pedro Garcia Lione at the OECD's Directorate for Education explains how changes in China's economy and the swelling numbers of graduates could affect the future labour market:

"What we can see from the Chinese is that the growth rate of the occupation that is highly demanded in terms of skills, is in science and technology were growing in the last decade in China and I think that is one of the main factors that will shape the labour market in the future."

And with so many new graduates coming from China, the labour market is going to face many changes. Professor Yao Shujie who is an economist and the Head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, explains how the labour market and academia will need to adapt to meet the needs of the new workforce:

"So there are a number of things the China higher education can do, number one is to make the education more suitable for the society, for the industry and number two is to manage the expectation of graduates. Chinese tradition is that once you have got University education you must occupy some sort of white collar office job, but as the number is increasing this expectation may be a little too far away from the reality."

Professor Yao contends it is important in the next stage of development that manufacturing also diversifies into higher skilled services, which will require a number of more highly educated people.

But as China's economy continues to grow and its work force adapts to changing times, Professor Yao explains there could be some potential drawbacks to having so many skilled graduates.

He also highlights the importance of graduates gaining work experience in their chosen industry:

"There is a drawback if the market cannot change, for example if the education system cannot adapt to what the market needs, this is the concern, of course the University has to have a better connection with industries and the graduates have to have more practice in the industries."

As China's economy continues to expand it appears there may not be a shortage of jobs.

However, success will come in ensuring students graduate with the right skills for the current labour market.

For CRI, I'm Rebecca Hume.