NEARLY 200,000 jobs have been directly provided to college graduates from impoverished families this year to help them secure jobs, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said yesterday.

Taking boosting the employment of impoverished college graduates as a priority, the ministry has adopted a series of special measures this year, said Wang Hui, an official with the MOE.

The ministry has continued to host job fairs for graduates from poor families and sent over 280,000 items of recruitment information through mobile phones, Wang said, adding that it also helped college graduates from impoverished families in 52 poor counties nationwide seek employment by using big data technology.

Other measures, including further education training, personalized employment guidance and pairing assistance programs, were also launched by the ministry.

Next, the MOE will work with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other relevant departments to continuously help unemployed graduates find jobs, Wang said.

To facilitate the employment of impoverished graduates, some Chinese universities and enterprises have also rolled out preferential measures.

For example, the Shaanxi Normal University has launched a targeted assistance program to help graduates from impoverished families seek jobs, as well as graduates with physical disabilities and those from Hubei Province, providing employment guidance in accordance with the specific situation of each graduate, said You Xuqun, president of the university.

So far, the university has granted a total of 2.4 million yuan (US$350,000) of subsidies to this year’s graduates with difficulties.

Meanwhile, the China Three Gorges Corp. has recruited 100 graduates from poor families as planned, providing them with a total of 1.2 million yuan of poverty allowance, said Yang Xingshi, deputy general manager of the company.

A total of 8.74 million college students have graduated in China this year. (Xinhua)