Reform of employment and recruitment practices
It is important that high school graduates are given as many opportunities as possible to select an occupation. While completely abolishing the one-person-one-company system on one hand, on the other hand, employment and career guidance should begin when students enter high school so they are well able to select an occupation on their own judgment.
Also, the year after graduation should be regarded as a period of joint follow-up by schools and employment agencies. Especially in regard to unemployed graduates and freeters, each party should assess the situation and support the employment of those young people.
With respect to college students, internship opportunities, career counseling, and other guidance schemes should be implemented soon after they enter college to eventually enable them to make independent career decisions.
Companies should give due consideration to the academic accomplishment of students when screening job applicants, as that is the primary function of students. Universities should draw upon France’s baccalaureate system, for example, and introduce a system of university graduation examination or college academic certification test.
Finally, as a measure to expand employment opportunities, companies should amend their traditional practice of recruiting only prospective new graduates and open their doors to those who have already graduated.
Enhancing career education and the role of industries
Career education aiming to cultivate work values should be a consecutive (连续的) program provided over an ample amount of time beginning in the primary, junior high, and high school compulsory education stage.
In addition to teaching students about the significance of working and about occupations in general, career education should also include a course on “work and daily living” as a comprehensive course aiming to prepare students to become working members of society. The course should deal with a broad range of topics relating to the work concept, such as rights and obligations stipulated in labor laws, as well as with the mechanics of the pension system and other social security institutions and with such immediate issues as the environment and energy. Such a course would help youths to select their own lifestyles, including how to achieve a good balance between work and private life.
The industrial community should form organizations of companies (such as NPOs) to address career education from a cross-cutting perspective and actively engage in activities to support the development of human resources for the next generation. For example, they are expected to develop and provide educational programs based on their unique technology and know-how, send personnel to schools, and offer funds and equipment.
In regional areas in Japan, activities to revitalize regional industries and promote new industries should be linked to model projects that incorporate regional characteristics and aim to foster and retain young people as future leaders of the region. For example, local governments could utilize the 500 or so young workers’ centers throughout Japan as the bases of such projects with the cooperation of regional businesses and schools.
Proposal of a “career passport”
The “career passport” would function as a record of one’s career and as a certification for the utilization of various support measures. It would be issued to all youths over the age of 18 and would be a passport to continuous support valid up to the age of 30 to 35.
The passport would contain a record of job changes, part-time experiences, studies, certifications and self-development efforts, in addition to accomplishments achieved through participation in volunteer and NPO activities. In this respect, it would take the form of an electronic card to allow the input and accumulation of information through a digital format that can be accessed by the individual whenever necessary.
The passport would enable young workers to receive career counseling regularly or as necessary at job cafes that are being newly established or at the more than 500 young worker’s centers throughout Japan. They would also have the opportunity to check and evaluate their own careers, including part-time experiences, and effectively utilize various support programs for employment, capacity development and other areas necessary for developing their careers.
In addition to the above, a vocational scholarship system should be created to provide financial support for educational courses and school expenses to all young people who have graduated school—including the unemployed, freeters, and displaced workers—so that they may voluntarily prepare themselves for a job or develop their working capacities.
1. The youth frequent job changes result in many companies’ guarded stance on their employment.
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