Up to 16,000 graduates in Guangdong province will be selected this year to work as teachers in grassroots-level schools.

The move is one of a series of policies designed to help university students find jobs or start their own businesses.

"Under the current financial crisis, university students about to graduate this summer will face a very tough challenge in employment," said Zheng Chaoyang, deputy director of the provincial labor and social security department.

Those working as teachers in villages will have their school fees paid back, Zheng said. Another 1,600 graduates will work as assistant secretaries in village Party committees.

In another initiative, start-up companies founded by graduates will be exempt from administrative fees for three years.

Small guaranteed loans will be increased to 50,000 yuan ($7,300) for students who start their own businesses after graduation.

Zheng said as many as 5,000 companies, scientific and research institutes and industrial associations will be included in an "internship program", providing work service for more than 60,000 graduates from 2009 to 2011.

Companies that hire more graduates than last year and sign employment contracts for more than one year will be given social insurance subsidies, Zheng said.

Students who still do not find jobs after graduation will be given temporary subsidies by the government for about six months. Song Hai, Guangdong's vice-governor, said last month that about only a quarter of graduates in the province had signed employment contracts by the end of March.

"There are fewer job vacancies than last year, but there will be more students graduate this summer," said Li Xiaolu, deputy director of Guangdong provincial education department.

About 363,000 university students are set to graduate in Guangdong this year.

(China Daily May 4, 2009)