China to build 5,000 internship "bases" to prepare youths for job

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Chinese media) -- China is to build up to

5,000 "bases" in 2009 to provide internship positions for the young to better

prepare them for the job market as it feels pain amid the global financial

crisis.

The Chinese Communist Youth League, a government body

for work related to the young, will coordinate in recruiting qualified companies

and individuals, the League told Chinese media Monday.

The youth leagues at municipal or provincial levels

will select suitable companies to form the "bases", businesses or sets of

businesses which will be able to provide positions for at least 10 interns each

year with basic living allowances.

Qualified candidates for the intern positions are

job-hunting fresh university or vocational school graduates, those who have

failed to find a job since graduation, young laid-off workers, and young migrant

workers.

The first group of nearly 2,000 such bases are

already selected and made public, offering about 60,000 positions in the

industries of finance, publishing, telecommunications, manufacturing and

transportation.

The aim of this move is to ease the employment

pressure and achieve a win-win situation between the companies and the youths,

according to the Youth League.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security

(MOHRSS) said on January 20 that there would be 7.1 million college graduates

seeking vacancies this year, including 1 million of those having failed to

secure jobs last year.

The ministry also said, as of the end of 2008, there

were 8.86 million urban residents registered as jobless, 560,000 more than the

end of the third quarter.