Special Supplement: Institute builds talent pool

Shanghai Pudong Software Park, launched in 1998, has experienced rapid development and attracted nearly 200 well-known enterprises from home and abroad to set up shop there.

The park attributes its success to its enterprise-like management mechanism, its back-up services in human resources, and a sound technology environment.

Operating mechanism

Basically, China's software parks adopt either of the two operating models. One is a government-like administrative model. The government sets up an administrative committee, which uses government funds to build and manage the park. The other is an enterprise-like management model.

Shanghai Pudong Software Park is built and managed by a standard enterprise - Shanghai Pudong Software Park Co Ltd. The characteristics of this management model are: the government initiates the project, shareholders make the investment, the enterprise raises funds on the market, and the company is operated commercially.

The company, under the leadership of general meetings of shareholders, board of directors and board of supervisors, is responsible for constructing and managing the national software industry base and the national software outsourcing base, under government-approved planning.

Shanghai Pudong Software Park Co Ltd is operated under the modern enterprise mechanism. With shareholders' investment and public financing, the company has invested in property development and a variety of service sectors. It has established a public service platform for software technologies and an institute of information.

The company has also made equity investment in enterprises and projects specializing in software development, system integration, software export and so on.

With its basic role of park construction, inviting investment, offering services in the park, and software research and development, the company has grown along with the software park.

Its net assets have maintained a rapid growth in the past years. Net assets rose to nearly 400 million yuan by the end of last year, from 47 million yuan in 1998.

Currently, the company is preparing for a public listing, which is expected to open up a wider space for Shanghai Pudong Software Park's sustainable development.

Talent support

For the software sector - a knowledge industry - the most important means of production is skilled personnel. But the shortage in human resources has been hindering the development of the software industry. Therefore, effectively acquiring the talents an enterprise needs is key to the industry's sustainable development.

In 2006, the number of employees in Shanghai's software industry was 140,000. The number is projected to exceed 200,000 by 2010.

And the number of employees in Shanghai Pudong Software Park was 12,000 last year, which is expected to reach 40,000 by 2010.

Higher education in China has developed rapidly in the past years, with growing numbers graduating every year. In 2006, the number of students graduating reached 4.13 million.

But these graduates lack practical experience and skills and cannot meet enterprises' demands for skilled employees.

Thus helping graduating students improve their skills has become an important social issue.

Shanghai Pudong Software Park, home to nearly 200 enterprises and with nearly 1,000 companies registered there, has been exploring solutions to match human resources supplies with enterprises' needs for years.

In 2000, Shanghai Pudong Software Park set up a training center. And later in 2006, it developed an institute of information dedicated to non-academic education. It provides training for graduating students in line with enterprises' needs, offers internal training for employees in the park and provides software technology training for non-IT specialists who are planning to enter the industry.

During the training, students can get actual practice by participating in real projects of enterprises. Students become trainees of designated enterprises after the training and are employed when they pass enterprises' assessment.

For those who fail in the assessment, Shanghai Pudong Software Park will offer them training jobs until they can meet enterprises' requirements and find employment.

At present, the institute cooperates with a number of well-known software enterprises from home and abroad.

The institute, started from copying these enterprises' training models, has formed an established system to offer targeted training for these enterprises, helping them lower costs and improve efficiency in recruiting.

In terms of internal training, the institute offers staff in the park opportunities to update their knowledge and get further education.

As information technology is developing rapidly with new software, new technologies and new facilities, software professionals must keep up with the changes to stay ahead in the market.

The institute, in cooperation with universities, research institutes and multinational enterprises, can provide training courses on latest technology and R&D facilities.

Software training courses for non-IT specialists also help to take some pressure off the enterprises in recruitments.

Software, as a sunrise industry, has attracted a great number of non-IT specialists. At the same time, information technology, which is used in various industries, needs special industry knowledge in other areas. For example, people familiar with software R&D and financial knowledge are needed in developing financial software.

Shanghai Zhangjiang Institute of Information, located in Shanghai Pudong Software Park, serves as a bridge between universities and enterprises.

It has established partnerships with more than 20 companies including Microsoft, IBM and HP, and over 10 well-known universities such as Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Royal Canadian Institute of Technology.

The institute, relying on technology support of the software park, established a practical service platform offering human resources services for the software industry.

From 2000 to the end 2006, the institute has imparted training of approximately 9,000 man-hours. A part of the students have been recruited by enterprises such as IBM China, HP China, Infosys, Shanghai Newtouch Software Co Ltd and Hypersoft Shanghai Co Ltd, and have received favorable comments from their employers.

The institute is growing into a booster for the industrial development of Shanghai Pudong Software Park.

Technology environment

As the core of IT industry, the software sector features the high investment, high output as well as high risks. Most large-scale software businesses have their own service systems to support software lifecycle.

However, the software sector took off late in China - most enterprises are small and there is neither a complete industrial chain nor a mature service system, which has affected the development of the industry as a whole.

In 2002, Shanghai Pudong Software Park joined forces with the government and invested some 50 million yuan to establish a public service platform for software technologies, the first of its kind in China.

It provides software enterprises with commonly used software, database and software test services in order to improve the efficiency of small and medium-sized software enterprises to reduce their costs in research and development.

Shanghai Pudong software public technology service platform serves as a key component of Pudong Software Park, which is both a national software industry base and software outsourcing base.

Run by Shanghai Pudong Software Platform Co Ltd, the platform helps enterprises improve their innovative capability and build core competitiveness by granting them necessary public technology services and creating better research and development environment.

Since it was established in 2002, the service platform has provided about 3,000 technical services, ranging from training and specialized services to technology resource services, for over 1,000 businesses, including Baosight, SunGard, E&P International, Shanda and Primeton.

Domestic and overseas players as well as experts from government agencies, such as the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Information Industry, all speak highly of services of Shanghai Pudong Software Platform Co Ltd.

Supported by the Ministry of Information Industry, Shanghai municipal informatization commission and Shanghai municipal science and technology commission, it is actively involved in the construction and services of similar platforms, such as the software and information outsourcing service platform under the Ministry of Information Industry, Shanghai municipal informatization platform and Shanghai R&D public service platform.

A number of other software bases in the Yangtze River Delta and other regions across China, including those in Suzhou, Wuxi, Changsha, Qingdao and Xinjiang, have got in touch with the company, helping it to expand its resources and services further.

(China Daily 09/05/2007 page6)