(The original article in Japanese was posted on April 22, 2022)

 

On April 18, 2022, “Industry-Academia Council on the Future of Recruitment and University Education,” a consultative body organized by the Japan Association of National Universities and Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), announced that it would allow companies to use student information acquired during internships for recruitment purposes. Previously, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) took the position that internships were part of educational activities and were not allowed to be used for public relations activities or for employee selection, but it will now begin to review the rules.

In terms of getting to know each other better, work experience in the workplace is highly beneficial for both companies and students. The decision made this time is a step forward at a time when more diverse recruitment methods including year-round recruitment and job-based recruitment have started to be adopted.

The council classified industry-academia collaborative initiatives for student career development into following four categories:

1. conduct of employer information sessions
2. introduction of career education programs
3. offering of opportunities for work experience for general purposes or specialized jobs
4. provision of opportunities for highly specialized work experience, allowing students’ work experience that meets certain conditions to be utilized for recruitment purposes

Specifically, following conditions are provided: participation has to be at least five days for the general-purpose recruitment and at least two weeks for the specialized-purpose recruitment, with more than half of the days to be spent for actual work experience; the work experience must take place during summer holidays or other long holidays; detailed information on the program must be publicized in application guidelines and the like; the information must be used only “after the start of the recruitment process;” and so on.

Last year, the national government requested the Keidanren to set the start of recruitment and employee selection activities for 2022 graduates to June 1 onward, and the tentative job offer date to October 1 onward. In response to this request, the Keidanren notified its member companies to “conduct recruitment and employee selection activities in line with the government’s request.” However, as of April 1, 2022, the ratio of graduates with tentative job offers had already reached 38.1% (according to a survey by Recruit Co., Ltd. and Shushoku Mirai Kenkyujo). Of course, this percentage includes students who received offers from non-member companies of the Keidanren, but it is fair to say that the “schedule” for graduate recruitment activities is completely losing the substance.

In October 2018, the Keidanren decided not to “formulate guidelines on recruitment and employee selection activities” for new recruits from FY2021 onwards, leaving the matter in the government’s hands. It means that the authority and significance of controlling member companies, not to mention the whole industry, of the Keidanren has diminished. However, the government’s “edict” that took over the responsibility from the Keidanren had no effect. The same applies to internships. Not a few companies have already started to utilize internships in their recruitment and employee selection processes. Nevertheless, how much sense does it make to dare to condition the start dates of recruitment and employee selection activities and of sending tentative job offers? It ruins an opportunity to diversify recruitment and employee selection if the work experience is something to embody and let students experience the fact that the theory and reality are different and that this is what fully grown adults do and should understand. I do not want “Society 5.0 human resources” to be steeped in the thought of Showa era.

 

This Week’s Focus, April 22, 2022

Takashi Mizukoshi, the President