Polytechnic Institute expects to see new graduates employed in 3 months

IPM’s department head Vivian Lei

Student Yili Ling

The Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) expects their graduates to be able to find jobs in their areas of study in about three months’ time. This is the belief – or at least the hope – expressed by the institution’s Academic Affairs Department Head, Vivian Lei.
The scholar was speaking on the sidelines of IPM’s Careers Day 2016 that was inaugurated yesterday at the tertiary institution.
“In the past, it took about two months’ time for the fresh graduates to get a job but our last survey from 2015 shows that the period extended slightly to an average of about three months after graduation.  This is still a very good record when compared to other regions and countries,” Lei said.
She added that IPM expects 650 fresh graduates to emerge from the different majors on offer this year, explaining that they will have easy access to the job due to the programs’ suitability to the local market and to potential hirers.
“We are very confident that our graduates can find jobs very easily because our programs are fully related to the Macau strategy and development, namely its role as a platform between China and the Portuguese speaking countries,” Vivian Lei said.
The department also mentioned that other study programs such as the ones related to the creative industries and nursing are also currently in high demand.  Graduates from these programs should therefore not expect to encounter many obstacles when entering the job market.
“The students are looking for, firstly, something related to their study program, and secondly, jobs that offer a better salary,” Lei stated, adding that only some of the fresh graduates may be affected by the downturn in Macau’s economy. “It depends on the programs. For example, in Chinese-Portuguese translation the employment rate is 100 percent with most students finding a job three or four months before they actually graduate.”
For Yili Ling, 21, a student from mainland China who expects to be on the graduates list this year, “to find job opportunities in Macau is the goal.” The graduate hopes to find a job in the marketing field. “Casinos are the strongest industry so I might get a job there, or even in another area. As I am not a resident, I might have some quota-
related issues,” Yili Ling said, adding that although she is “not too optimistic about it, she looks forward to receiving responses from some of the companies she is contacting.”
Yili Ling was one of the students visiting the Careers Day, which featured 38 booths comprising of representatives from different companies and institutions. The Times also spoke with Brenda Hoi, the Human Resources Business Partner of a company dedicated to the sale of wristwatches.
She told the Times that she is looking for candidates that have “a passion for the retail sector and love to work in a customer service-oriented job and have a very good customer service mindset.”
Although the company receives a lot of applications, she finds it difficult to hire the right people because the gaming industry is often looking for the same kind of candidate.
Brenda Hoi sees the retail industry as much more competitive than the casino industry because “many people are not interested in working night shifts”.
The Careers Day is one of the activities planned by the IPM “in order to put their students in contact with companies that might be interested in recruiting them” according to the deputy head of the institution, Yin Lei, in her opening speech.
Other activities will occur over a period of one month, including talks and seminars from several companies, as well as workshops about employment-­related topics.