Education | Most students opt to start working after graduation

A survey released by the Tertiary Education Services Office shows that most new university graduates prefer to start their working career rather than enroll in further education.
Among the 2,446 respondents, 70.9 percent said that they would prefer to get a job, while 11.8 percent intended to obtain a master’s degree and work simultaneously. The remaining respondents aimed for postgraduate studies.
The survey discloses 2014 data on the employment situation of 1,812 graduates: 85.4 percent had been working for one year, and 3.4 percent were studying for another degree.
Education, administration, banking, finance and insurance industries are still relatively popular for their regular working hours.
Regarding monthly salaries, the survey reveals that 29 percent of the respondents are paid between MOP10,000 and MOP14,000, 25 percent have an income of between MOP14,000 and MOP18,000, and the average salary of the likely top earners (amounting to 15 percent of the interviewees) ranges between MOP18,000 and MOP22,000.  Ninety percent of the respondents work in Macau.
Separately, it was announced this week that the government is aiming to attract tertiary education students from the “Belt and Road” countries and other regions in order to turn Macau into an educational hub and a cultural exchange platform.
The initial proposal for this education policy was made by representatives of the MSAR government to the mainland’s ministry of Education.
The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam told reporters that Macau could play a vital role in the city’s development of the “21st Century Silk Road,” particularly in fields such as science and technology, education, culture, tourism and commerce.
A press release issued by the Government Information Bureau stated that one of the government’s ideas is to increase the quota for mainland students in higher education programs in Macau. Currently, the University of Macau offers scholarships at a postgraduate level to mainland students.
The creation of policies to enable higher education students from Portuguese-
speaking countries to study courses such as tourism and Mandarin language in Macau is also being considered by the government, as a means of enhancing Macau’s role as an intermediary for developing commerce and trade between China and Lusophone countries..
Mr Tam added that the idea also involved an expansion in the present educational cooperation network between Macau and institutions in the mainland. Staff reporters