I’ve spent all of this week in Hong Kong and China discussing the launch of www.mytalentplace.cn. My business partners and I are convinced that the Chinese mindset together with the single child policy and massive market size makes this a great place for a business offering careers advice to students. It’s my first trip to China and I thought I’d share some of my impressions with you. Seeing and experiencing something first hand is always much more powerful than reading about it.

Career competition

Firstly, in this week it was announced that China is now the world’s biggest car market. Last year, the growth in new car sales was 46% at a time when all the Western car markets were dead! China also recently overtook Germany to become the world’s biggest exporter. Get the idea? The momentum here is unstoppable. This new wealth and prosperity is creating a thriving market for  luxury brands too.

Everyone I spoke to (students as well as parents) gave us one message. The message is that Chinese parents will do everything they can to further the prospects of their child. There’s only one child to lavish attention and resources on and having experienced hard times under communism, parents know that their children have great prospects, particularly if they can gain an international qualification and experience. Of course, most parents in the UK will say that they want their kids to have the best and to do well, but I don’t think there’s that same level of intensity that exists in China.  Western life is comfortable and fairly predictable. A UK student who screws up his exams this year knows that there is likely to be another chance. We need to be prepared to see lots more Chinese students at our UK universities. As universities struggle financially, so more and more Chinese parents will pay for their child to get the best education.

So, not only will new graduates be competing with their Chinese equivalents for jobs, but they’ll be competing with more Chinese students while they’re studying. While these foreign students might lack in certain areas, they certainly won’t be out on the lash every night! From March 2010 Chinese students will also be benefitting from the career advice provided by MyTalentplace