Employment prospects and salary are the first choices, and they prefer first-tier or new first-tier cities
On June 28, Guangdong's 2024 high-level recruitment volunteer application officially began. This year is the fourth year of Guangdong's new college entrance examination, and admission is still divided into three batches: early approval, undergraduate approval and junior college (higher vocational) batch. According to the data, the 2024 college entrance examination voluntary application is more closely focused on employment prospects and salary than in previous years, and science and engineering disciplines, high-tech majors, first-tier and new first-tier cities in the central and southern regions, as well as listed companies such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area, have become the preferred choice for candidates and parents. Nearly ninety percent of college entrance examination candidates are willing to choose paid voluntary filling services, with prices ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of yuan, forming a market size of nearly one billion yuan. Some voices believe that the irrational overheating of the market and the shortcomings of the voluntary filling service of public welfare and inclusiveness are also one of the causes of this phenomenon.
A
Professional career prospects and salary
It is the first consideration when choosing a major
The data shows that the factors considered by candidates when volunteering to fill in the application are majors (34.6%), schools (32.5%), and cities (27.3%), which are different from the schools ranked first in previous years. Analysts believe that this is because of the rapid progress of science and technology and economy, the rapid changes in social industries, and once some industries become the outlet, forming a boom, it can greatly improve the competitiveness of graduates and make them more practical and targeted in the job market.
In the concept of the previous generation, mathematics, physics and chemistry occupied half of the country, and now it seems that this trend is more prevalent than in the old days. According to the data, 56.5% of Chinese college entrance examination candidates are science subjects. Engineering, science, economics, education, and management are the top majors preferred by candidates, accounting for 26.75%, 25.81%, 23.63%, 23.48%, and 23.32% respectively.
"Professional employment prospects and salary" is the primary consideration for candidates when choosing a major, accounting for 52.6%, which is basically the decisive factor. In the data of 2023, the second and third places are "whether it is a popular major" and "personal interest", which are replaced by "whether it is a double first-class construction discipline" and "professional faculty" this year, of which "personal interest" fell from the third place to the sixth place, ranking behind the "graduation opportunity" and other factors. As early as 2022, "personal interest" ranked first, and employment and salary ranked third, lower than "whether it is a popular major".
When choosing a school, the school's reputation (C9/985/211/double first-class, etc.) has become the first consideration, and under the golden signboard, the "comprehensive strength and reputation of the school" and "teaching conditions and equipment", which were ranked higher in previous years, have slipped this year.
In the past two or three years, it can be seen that under the increasingly severe employment environment, many candidates have put away some personalized, short-term and casual considerations, and paid more attention to the actual resources invested by universities.
When it comes to the factors that candidates consider when choosing a city, university resources are second only to job opportunities, followed by the economic strength of the city and the number of businesses. It can be seen that the more abundant the resources of enterprises and universities in a city, the more conducive to the employment and growth of individuals, as well as the resistance to risks when passing through the cycle as an economically developed region.
B
There are many jobs and great opportunities for growth
Candidates prefer first-tier or new first-tier cities
In recent years, the number of people in the workplace has grown, the job market is fiercely competitive, and planning for future employment and salary in advance is the main appeal of many college entrance examination candidates and parents this summer. This appeal is also "forced" colleges and universities to adjust their discipline construction and professional settings. In 2024, the Ministry of Education will add 24 new majors in the fields of law, engineering, literature, agriculture, art, education, and management, and higher education will gradually move closer to the actual situation of the market and be closer to the needs of social development and the employment of graduates.
As artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing become the mainstream, there are a large number of job vacancies in high-tech industries, and related majors have become popular. Majors involved in new quality productivity, such as new energy science and engineering, microelectronics science and engineering, and other new engineering majors, have become popular directions for this year's application. Combined with the data of last year's autumn recruitment, engineering is still the leading major in the job market, and the prospects of the artificial intelligence industry are also optimistic about the market, and the number of resumes submitted is ahead of others.
The data also shows that 49.15% of China's college entrance examination business is in the city as a first-tier or new first-line, a gathering place for listed companies and universities, with many jobs and large growth opportunities. For graduates to choose an ideal "novice city" to start their careers, the city's university and corporate resources are very important indicators, affecting the future working environment, development prospects, salary and personal life.
As of 2023, there are a total of 3,074 colleges and universities in China, including 1,242 undergraduate colleges, 1,547 higher vocational (junior college) colleges and 252 adult colleges and universities. According to the province, Henan Province, Jiangsu Province, Guangdong Province, and Shandong Province have a large number of ordinary universities, all of which are more than 150, which provide a large number of fresh blood for the workplace every year.
As of 2023, there are 142 Chinese companies in the Fortune Global 500, mainly in traditional industries such as mining, crude oil production, trading, metal products, vehicles and parts, and real estate. The largest number of companies on the list is Beijing (53), followed by Shanghai (12), Shenzhen (10), Hangzhou (7), Hong Kong and Guangzhou each with 6, and Chengdu with 4.
In terms of geographical distribution of investment and financing, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou still account for the top three. From 1971 to 2024, there are about 25,000 investment and financing events in Beijing, with a total amount of 5,000 billion yuan; There are about 13,000 cases in Shanghai, with an amount of about 2.6 trillion yuan, and about 12,000 cases in Guangdong Province, with an amount of about 2.3 trillion yuan. It is followed by Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province.
C
There is a lack of guidance in the new market of one billion yuan
Public welfare and inclusive services need to "make up for shortcomings"
With the change of the college entrance examination admission method, the increase and decrease of college majors and the changes in the job market, for ordinary candidates and parents, the difficulty of filling in the college entrance examination is also rising, and nearly four adults frankly admit that they are worried about "choosing the wrong major".
At present, there are shortcomings in public welfare and inclusive related services, and nearly 30% of the surveyed college entrance examination related groups believe that they "do not know much about the college entrance examination voluntary filling", which was more than 20% last year, resulting in a paid college entrance examination voluntary filling market.
From hundreds of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan of services, many candidates and parents are willing to buy. Among them, products with prices in the range of 201-800 yuan are the most popular, and more than half of the respondents think they are acceptable.
According to the data, in 2023, the scale of payment in China's college entrance examination voluntary filling market will reach 950 million yuan. The data shows that nearly ninety percent of college entrance examination candidates are willing to choose the college entrance examination voluntary filling service; In 2023, the scale of payment in the China College Entrance Examination voluntary filling market will be 950 million yuan. At present, due to the lack of channels for college entrance examination candidates to obtain college entrance examination information, coupled with the increasing number of college entrance examination admissions year by year, the demand for college entrance examination voluntary filling industry has increased, and it is expected to increase to 1.22 billion yuan in 2027.
According to earlier media reports, before the announcement of the results of this year's college entrance examination, some volunteer filling services of tens of thousands of yuan were snapped up as soon as they were launched, and even the consultation places for 2026 have been sold out.
This emerging market is also a cause for concern. Practitioners often take advantage of the "information gap" that parents and candidates are not familiar with the filling process and do not understand the university major and employment prospects to output anxiety and guide payment. On June 18, the official website of the Ministry of Education issued a special document reminding candidates and parents to be wary of the trap of "high-priced tutoring", making it clear that the relevant departments have never issued professional qualification certificates such as "college entrance examination volunteer planners". The "Sunshine College Entrance Examination" information platform of the Ministry of Education also opens the "Sunshine Volunteer" information service system for college entrance examination candidates free of charge, providing services such as volunteer recommendation, professional introduction, psychological assessment, employment destination and prospect inquiry.
Experts believe that the voluntary filling in the consulting market is irrationally overheated, not only because of external environmental factors such as the employment pressure of college graduates, but also because of the failure of the three-year career education in high school. Relevant departments need to take the initiative to strengthen guidance and standardization, so as to avoid candidates and parents falling into the pit due to blind obedience and utilitarian filling attitude.
D
The competition is getting tougher
More than 20% of college entrance examination candidates want to study abroad
With the increase in population and the increase in education popularization, more and more people are aware of the importance of higher education, and the number of college entrance examination students in China is increasing year by year. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education, the number of college entrance examinations in China in 2023 will reach 12.91 million, with an acceptance rate of 85.2% and an average undergraduate admission rate of 34.0%. Compared with the 2020 figure of 10.71 million acceptance rate of 90.4% and 2021 of 10.78 million acceptance rate of 92.9%, it can be seen that the number of people is increasing, but the acceptance rate is decreasing, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce. The provinces with the most "volume" are Henan, Shandong, and Hebei provinces, followed by Sichuan and Guangdong provinces. There are 702,000 college entrance examinations in Guangdong Province, and the undergraduate admission rate is 39.9%, ranking high among all provinces and cities in terms of "involution". Only about 50,000 people in Beijing and Shanghai took the college entrance examination, and the undergraduate admission rates reached 83.8% and 70.0% respectively.
From the perspective of the online rate of each province, the first echelon of more than 30% is Beijing, Chongqing, Liaoning Province, Tianjin and Jiangsu Province; The second echelon between 21% and 30% includes Hunan Province, Hebei Province, Anhui Province, Heilongjiang Province, etc.; 16%-20% of the third echelon has Guangdong Province, Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, Hubei Province, Sichuan Province, etc.
The relatively unbalanced higher education resources in China make it difficult to meet the needs of everyone, and qualified candidates and parents need to find other ways out. According to the data, 24.7% of college entrance examination candidates want to study abroad, more than 80% tend to participate in Sino-foreign cooperation programs, that is, study abroad after participating in short-term training in domestic universities, and less than 10% choose study abroad agents. Among the factors of concern for studying abroad, cost is the first consideration, followed by the school's world ranking, the number of Chinese students in the school, and the help for future employment.
Different from previous years, more than 50% of college entrance examination candidates said that they hope to return to China to continue their studies after graduating from university, 32.7% hope to stay abroad for employment, and only about 6% choose to return to China for employment and continue their studies abroad. Analysts believe that it may be due to the consideration of both higher education and economic factors.
■Planning: New Express reporter Luo Yun
■Written by: New Express reporter Luo Yun
■Drafting: Liao Muxing
![Fill in the college entrance examination volunteers, these misunderstandings should be avoided →[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)