Deficiency in language skills is the most common weakness of university graduates, according to a survey released yesterday.

The survey, conducted by the Public Opinion Programme of the University of Hong Kong, was commissioned by an educational website.

Among the 1,500 interviewees, 13.4 per cent criticized university graduates' proficiency in English and in Chinese, especially Putonghua.

A total of 12.1 per cent of them said university graduates lacked social or work experience.

The representative of the educational website, Joy Shi, said proficiency in Chinese and in English derives from basic language training during the primary and secondary levels.

She urged the government to allocate more resources to language-teaching sections in schools.

She also encouraged university students to do summer jobs during the vacation to gain more work experience.

About 200 of the 1,500 interviewees were employers involved in the recruitment process of new staff. They were asked which institutions they preferred when seeking to hire university graduates.

Most of the employers preferred employing graduates from the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, with the percentages 24.5, 18.4, and 14.6 respectively.

Good knowledge of job-related areas was the main reason for the employers' preference on recruiting new staff (19.3 per cent), while good performance of previous graduates (18.9 per cent) and the reputation of the universities (13.3 per cent) came second and third on the list.

"It is obvious that employers became more practical in this year's survey. They focused on the graduates' knowledge first, rather then the university that the graduates came from," Shi said.

The representative advised that university students should not rely on the rank of the universities when seeking jobs.

Instead, they should be more concerned on their knowledge, experience, attitude and communication skills.

(HK Edition 07/23/2005 page2)