The United Daily News group’s Vision Workshop June 18, 2012 produced a special report, “Two crucial years—a turning point for Taiwan,” which used international comparisons and a consideration of past and present conditions to examine how the first two years of ROC President Ma Ying-jeou’s second term could be used to restore Taiwan’s growth momentum and produce an economic rebirth. The report made very clear that the talent problem was something that had to be addressed urgently, because saving the younger generation is the crux of Taiwan’s development problem.
In the nine months since, government officials have been frequently heard analyzing related problems. Kuan Chung-ming, the newly appointed Council for Economic Planning and Development minister, said that Taiwan faces four main challenges on the talent front: the mismatch between supply and demand, bias and rigidity in the educational system, training incompatible with demand and a loss of advantage in competing internationally for talent.
It is not that the government does not understand the importance of the talent problem. Two years ago Minister without Portfolio Cyrus C.Y. Chu raised the subject in interview. The brain drain was not new, he said, it was already well-known. But he also admitted that until he studied the problem he had not realized the extent to which Taiwan’s talent planning had gone so far off-track.
Also two years ago, Academia Sinica Chairman Wong Chi-huey produced his “Talent Manifesto,” calling on the government to formulate a plan. The Presidential Office said the talent problem has become so serious it is now a matter of national security, and that President Ma had instructed the relevant agencies to come up with a solution as early as 2010. The Executive Yuan emphasized that it had already passed a talent development bill and would spend NT$60 billion (US$2 billion) to cultivate the talent the country needed.
However, two years on, it is not clear that Taiwan has improved—on the contrary, the problem is worse. The talent problem has three aspects: talented personnel will not come to Taiwan, they will not stay, and Taiwan cannot use them properly. However, the problem of the younger generation is the most obvious.
Youth unemployment is a global problem. According to the World Bank’s World Development Report 2013, published in October 2012, about 200 million people are unemployed globally, of whom 75 million are under 25. By comparison, Taiwan’s youth unemployment rate was 12.6 percent in December 2012, the highest among major economies in Asia and about three times higher than the overall 4.18 percent unemployment rate. This further shows Taiwan youth’s disadvantaged position with respect to society as a whole.
Taiwan’s persistently high youth unemployment rate has several causes. One is the nation’s past lack of vision and planning for manufacturing development and talent cultivation. Manufacturing has slowly run out of steam and there is a mismatch between changing demography and employment demands, leading to a serious disjunction of manufacturing and academia. Then there is the bitter result of academic reform. Two decades ago, technical institutions produced lots of middle-level skilled technicians for Taiwan. But reform transformed the technical schools into universities, which then began competing with regular universities, leading to a shortage of technicians.
Another important factor is the manufacturers’ negativity, leaving the task of developing talent to the government and the schools. This is especially true for some leading corporations, who continually complain about the lack of qualified people, especially young ones, as though it is up to the government and schools to do all the training.
Another important focus should be on cultivating young people’s self-reliance. When government policy, enterprises’ attitudes, the education system and economic growth are all in the doldrums, if young people cannot boost their worth on their own initiative, given that they are themselves the best solution to their own predicament, how can they not be seen as mollycoddled?
With a new cabinet and Taiwan’s youngest-ever premier in office, it is time to refocus attention on the youth employment problem. It is hoped that the government and opposition can join hands to solve the problems plaguing the younger generation. Even better would be for government and business to look beyond present difficulties and determine what talent will be needed 10 or 20 years from now—taking into account demographic trends and structural changes in manufacturing industry—to produce a talent roadmap and solve Taiwan’s predicament. (SDH)
(This commentary first appeared in the United Daily News, March 11, 2103.)