A bird's-eye view of Dishui Lake, a landmark in the Lin-gang Special Area. [Photo/WeChat ID: lgqyfwj]

The employment rate for graduates of colleges and universities in the Lin-gang Special Area – located in East China's Shanghai – was higher than the city's average last year.

That's according to Wu Qunfeng, an official from the Lin-gang Special Area Administration, who was speaking at a conference in March.

The achievement was corroborated by Xu Yan, Party chief of GTA Semiconductor, a leading analog chips manufacturer based in Shanghai.

Xu said the colleges and universities in Lin-gang were focused on developing their students' practical competence and as a result their graduates usually comfortably met the demands of employers.

She identified Shanghai University of Electric Power and Shanghai Dianji University as prime examples of this – adding that graduates from these two universities, both of which have opened a campus in Lin-gang, are popular with leading enterprises in related industries.

This popularity is said to be attributed to the efforts made by the Lin-gang Special Area to promote industry-education integration over the past few years.

Since it became a national pilot core area for industry-education integration on Jan 6, 2021, Lin-gang has blazed its own trial to further promote integration through multiple measures and is said to be striving to be a pioneer in the field.

It has promoted a "1+X" certificate pilot project for graduates, in a bid to encourage them to obtain one degree certificate and several certificates for professional skills. It has also explored developing customized talent training for employers and incubated 20 pilot enterprises and institutes for industry-education integration.

Lin Zhenxun, an engineer of Tesla's Lin-gang factory who once studied at Shanghai Dianji University, is a beneficiary of the area's industry-education integration.

He received tutorships from his business mentors, which enabled him to improve his abilities in an all-round way and become a highly desirable professional in the jobs market.

In addition, Lin-gang helps connect enterprises' needs with local universities through setting up workstations that offer a communications channel between the two sides.