Suzhou Industrial Park craves for talents

The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park is well-equipped with technology and finances, but when it comes to its workforce, it has been experiencing a lack of talents.

Hence the park's human resources company is on the prowl to recruit more talents as well as encouraging the current employees upgrading their skills.

The company has cranked up its headhunting initiatives by appealing for talents home and abroad.

The headhunting initiative has taken on different platforms such as job recruitment websites and agencies. The HR management even signed exclusive agreements with renowned universities in China to provide them with employees with higher degrees. The company also organizes headhunting trips from time to time to source for talents in places like American's Silicon Valley, Japan and Shanghai.

At the moment, the park lacks about two to three thousand specialized talents each year and an overall workforce of 20,000 to 30,000 employees every year in areas such as the financial securities, tourism, research and service. The company also revealed that talents in the area of software development and human resource management are most needed.

The company's CEO Kang Yue told sources that more efforts need to be done in order to team up with world famous headhunting companies in order to fully meet the park's needs for talents.
At the same time, Suzhou has taken the initiative to cultivate talents on its own by setting up the Suzhou Dushu Lake Tertiary Education area.

In May 2006, the Chinese Ministry of Education approved the first Sino-British University to be set up in the Park, in a partnership between Xi'an Jiantong University and the University of Liverpool.

The tertiary institution will be known as Xi'an Jiantong-Liverpool University and offers courses such as Electronics, Communications, Compueter Science and Management.

The Suzhou Industrial Park was the brainchild of China's late leader Deng Xiaoping who suggested tapping on Singapore's expertise in 1992. The park was later established in 1994.