Employers' organizations submit joint proposal regarding hiring of young workers
In May, Nippon Keidanren and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry
submitted to the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry a joint proposal
on the promotion of recruitment and fostering of human resources focusing
on young people
As measures addressing non-employed youths, the proposal calls for new
programs carried out by close collaboration among schools, corporations,
and the administration. It also urges that a comprehensive strategic plan
be drawn up to this end.
As the center for implementing these new measures, the proposal calls for
the establishment of a Career Center (provisional title) to be set up and
run by the local area, and in collaboration with industry, the private
sector, NPOs, municipalities, and Public Employment Security Offices. The
two organizations emphasized the need to coordinate information provision
with support activities to foster vocationa awareness (such as internships),
and to implement, in an integrated, one-stop manner, the following services,
which had traditionally been carried out independently: (1) provision of
information on corporations and job listings; (2) referral of jobseekers
to employers; (3) counseling to form a solid occupational/vocational awareness
and to clarify job seekers' interests and intended career paths; and (4)
introduction of training programs.
At the same time, the proposal pointed out the following as measures to
be bolstered and improved: (1) unifying the internship support setup (governing
ministries) and active use of the referral planned personnel dispatch system
(including trial recruitments); (2) studying a government-established,
privately-run system so that the government can cooperate with the private
sector in providing recruitment information; (3) devising a human resource
fostering program based on occupation-specific career maps and utilizing
private-sector individuals in public vocational training facilities.
Prior to this, Nippon Keidanren had published a report in April entitled
"Boosting Industrial Power--Tasks and Outlooks." In this report,
it stressed the need for strengthening recruitment intermediation through
the use of private-sector vitality, as well as tuning Public Employment
Security Offices' functions to those that match the actual market. The
report proposes measures that give shape to the vision launched by Chairman
Hiroshi Okuda in January, aiming at creating a Japan filled with vitality
and interest. As can be seen, Japanese employers' organizations have become
extremely outspoken recently, drawing public attention with one combative
statement after another.