Research On Work-Related Skills And Their Economic Returns Among Chinese Graduates Majoring In Computer

In the context of the recent scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation,China has put forward the ?Made in China 2025?development plan,and proposed the development goals of digitalization,networking and intellectualization of manufacturing industry.To achieve these goals,we need to build a contingent of intelligent manufacturing talents and onstruct multi-level talent teams,thus it put forward new challenges for the talent cultivation of colleges and universities in China.Among them,computer is the most relevant major to build future talents,so the graduates majoring in computer should be welcomed by the labor market.However,the employment quality of the computer major graduates is unsatisfied.And at the same time,the computer-related industries in the labor market are facing the problem of lack of talents.Faced with the above problems,computer major in colleges and universities in China should make full use of market signals to make adjustments and improvements in talent cultivation objectives,so as to improve the quality of graduates' employment and meet the needs of the labor market,and fundamentally solve the contradiction between supply and demand of the talents.Under this background,this dissertation will make use of the data from the survey of the 2014 undergraduate students to study to study the computer majors' work-related skills and their economic returns,in order to put forward constructive suggestions for the cultivation of university talents from the perspective of market reaction to work-related skills.The main contents of the dissertation are as follows:First,analyze the work-related skills of the computer majors in China,combined with the current situation of the cultivation of computer talents and the employment quality of the graduates majoring in computer,in order to find out the problems of the computer major in China and the contradiction between the talent cultivation and the employment quality of the graduates.Second,analyze the theoretical foundation and influence mechanism of returns to graduates' work-related skills,and construct the model on this basis.Then use this model to conduct an empirical study on the returns to work-related skills of computer major graduates and the heterogeneous returns.At last,use some econometric analysis tools to test the estimation.Third,on the basis of situation analysis and empirical research,drawing lessons from foreign countries and based on the national conditions of our country,this dissertation puts forward policy suggestions on the reformation of undergraduate computer talents cultivation in Chinese universities.The research uses literature research method,data analysis method,econometric research method and comparative analysis method,and finally draws the following conclusions:First,the work-related skills mastered by computer major graduates have positive and significant impact on their income,and the impact on mid-term employment income is greater than the impact on early employment income.Among the different types of work-related skills,?computer programming? has the greatest impact on income,and its impact on early and mid-term employment income is extremely significant.The work-related skills of computer major graduates have the greatest impact on the income of middle-income graduates,but the impact on the income of the highest-income graduates is not significant.Second,the discipline evaluation ranking of universities' computer major has a very significant impact on the income of graduates in the early stage of employment.The higher the evaluation ranking of computer major of a university,the higher the income of its graduates in the early stage of employment.However,during the mid-term employment stage of the graduates,the discipline evaluation ranking has no significant impact on the income of graduates.At this stage,the work-related skills play a greater role on graduates' income.Third,the returns on work-related skills of male graduates,those graduated from the first 40% discipline evaluation ranking universities,those employed in private sector,computer-related industries and non-Eastern regions are higher than that of female graduates,those graduated from the last 60% discipline evaluation ranking universities,those employed in public sector,non-computer-related industries and Eastern regions.Fourth,the total work-related skill satisfaction degree of undergraduates majoring in computer is less than 80%.Among them,?oral communication? has the highest degree of satisfaction,while ?computer programming? and?troubleshooting?,which belong to the category of technical skills,have the lowest degree of satisfaction.Furthermore,68.62% of the graduates of this major are under-skilled,which cannot meet the needs of their jobs.The under-skill problem of ?computer programming? is most obvious.80.65% of the computer major graduates are under-skilled in ?computer programming?.Combining the research conclusion with the current situation of computer talent cultivation and graduates' employment quality in China's colleges and universities,the study found that there are some problems in talent cultivation in China's colleges and universities:(1)When formulating the talent cultivation plan,colleges and universities do not respond adequately to the demand of the labor market,which is reflected in the low coincidence between the goal of talent cultivation and the demand of the labor market.(2)In the process discipline construction,colleges and universities have not put the cultivation of students' work-related skills in an important position.(3)There are some problems in the cultivation mode of talents in colleges and universities,which are mainly reflected in the individualization of talents and the insufficient attention paid to the differential cultivation,which cannot meet the needs of the ?vulnerable groups? of students.(4)The quality of talent cultivation in colleges and universities is unsatisfied and fails to meet the skill needs of the labor market.In view of the problems of talents cultivation in China's colleges and universities,and in combination with international experience,three suggestions are put forward:(1)The talent cultivation in China's colleges and universities should be guided by adapting to the needs of labor market,improving students' employment skills,strengthening the advantages and characteristics of universities,and intensifying the reformation of talent cultivation mode.(2)In the process of cultivation,it is necessary to change students' learning concepts,make full use of modern teaching technology,optimize the process of talent cultivation,and ensure the quality of higher education.(3)Colleges and universities in China should establish an evaluation system centered on students' learning outcomes,and conduct a comprehensive follow-up evaluation of the quality of talent cultivation combined with market feedback.Based on the existing literature at home and abroad,the main contributions of this dissertation are as follows:The first innovation lies in research content.Whether the work-related skills of computer major graduates are important,and which skill(s)is/are the most important,are the key issues to improve the cultivation of computer major talent in colleges and universities in China and also the key issues to build a contingent of intelligent manufacturing talents.So far,there is no relevant research on the level of work-related skills and their economic returns of graduates of any major in colleges and universities in China.Therefore,colleges and universities can not grasp the preference of the labor market for graduates' skills.Through empirical study,this dissertation attempts to analyze the impact of computer graduates' work-related skills on their income,and the differences in the returns to different work-related skills,so as to provide a new perspective for the study of talent cultivation in colleges and universities in China,and make up for the blank in this field.The second innovation lies in research theory.Based on the human capital theory,this dissertation studies the influence mechanism of graduates' work-related skills on their income.Following the logical route of ?cultivating talents in colleges and universities—acquiring work-related skills for college students—increasing investment in working skills by enterprises?,this study explores the internal mechanism of work-related skills' income premium in the labor market,which is innovative in the theoretical research of returns to work-related skills.The premise assumption of the traditional econometric model for estimating the returns to education is that the qualities of education undertaken by all workers are the same.Based on the results of the impact mechanism research,this study improves Mincer's income model and constructs an econometric model for the returns to work-related skills which can reflect the differences in the quality of talent cultivation in colleges and universities.The third innovation lies in testing methods.Due to potential measurement errors and missing variables,there may be deviations in estimating the returns to work-related skills of graduates.This paper is innovative in finding suitable instrumental variables and missing variables.First,use ?university achievement?of graduates as IV,and test it through 2SLS,LIML and GMM.The results show that ?university achievement? is a suitable IV,and ?subjective measurement?would cause downward of the estimation results.In the test of missing variables,the control variables of ?university achievement?,?family career background? and?promotion times? are added to the model.After comparing with the estimated results of the basic model,it is found that there is no deviation in estimating the returns to work-related skills at the initial employment of graduates by using the level of worked-related skills mastered by college students after graduation,while there is an upward bias in estimating the returns to work-related skills at the mid-term employment of graduates.