China has college "graduates" in pawn brokerage, auctions ( 2003-07-08 09:33) (Xinhua)
Sixty students with prestigious Nankai University of Tianjin municipality,
north China, have acquired certificates to practice in auction and pawn
businesses, the first in the country to "graduate" in the field after three
years of academic study, according to a source with university authorities
Tuesday.
Previously, all auctioneers in China received just short-term technical
training, which posed a hidden barrier to the long-term growth of auction
business, said Yao Guanghai, deputy director and secretary-general of the
Chinese Auction and Pawn Association.
Of the graduates, only eight will go on pursuing their bachelor degrees and
49 others have signed employment contracts with auction companies across the
country.
Intermediary services that have burgeoned in China since the launch of the
country's opening-up and reform in the late 1970s, pawn brokerages and auction
firms employ more than 40,000 people, of whom, only 3,000 are registered
auctioneers.
To help raise the proficiencies of Chinese auctioneers on a general basis,
remarkable progress is to be expected as the country's annual training capacity
for auctioneers is merely 4,000 to 5,000 people, Yang said.
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