King's Careers & Employability hosts Careers in China Events and wider Employer Engagement in country
King's hosts careers fairs, employer visits and receptions across China this summer.
King's Careers staff at the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park alongside colleagues from Imperial.
Throughout August, King's Careers & Employability hosted events across mainland China and Hong Kong, to support students, graduates and offer holders engage with employers and discover the range of opportunities available to them, returning to China.
The Careers in China events are part of a collaboration between three leading UK institutions, King's, Imperial and LSE, saw over 1,500 current, former or prospective students engaging across Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Whilst the events have been running for nearly 20 years in some form, this was the first activity since the pandemic - and the first time King's has been involved in leading the initiative.
King's met with alumni working at Ant Group's global headquarters in Hangzhou, China.
Alongside three careers fairs in these cities, the team also met with employers across the region, deepening our connectivity to key organisations in the country.
King's staff visited the key AI and technology hub of Hangzhou seeing engagement with local government officials, as well as trialling new technologies such as 'robodogs' in action.
Visiting the global headquarters of Ant Group, King's met with Jin, who studied Education in Arts & Cultural Settings MA in King's Social Science & Public Policy, graduating in 2022. Jin gave us a guided tour of their incredible space where they continue to attract talent into this rapidly developing city for AI, Data and Innovation.
In a visit to the country's third largest city, Shenzhen, we met with local employers and visited King's SKT Medical Campus hosted at SUSTech.
In Hong Kong, an employer roundtable saw representatives from leading financial and professionl services, consultancy and legal firms sharing updates on their hiring and harnessing best practice on engaging with UK universities whilst a visit to the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park (HKSTP) is already bearing useful opportunities in leading R&D, biotechnology and software engineering for King's students.
An Employer Roundtable event in Hong Kong saw talent and recruitment leaders from financial services, consultancy and law engage in discussion on how to best recruit from UK universities.
Strengthening our engagement in region is a key aspect of King's Careers & Employability's recently published new strategy, ensuring our sector-leading provision supports our large Chinese student population through a range of annual programming, with the annual Careers in China events as the culmination of months of workshops, employer presentations, panels, digital learning pathways and a new work-related learning project ensuring our Chinese graduates and offer holders gain real world work experience with Chinese employers.
Our teams will also be returning to market in autumn, working alongside other key King's divisions to showcase our engagement in the region and follow-up on key connections built this summer.
The success of these new events - and our wider engagement across China with employers, alumni, business groups, local government and partner institutions - has been an incredible undertaking, and one clearly strongly received by all involved. We look forward to harnessing the insights, connections and reflections from this summer to further expand our work in the region and to support Chinese students, graduates and offer holders in their careers and employability.
Andrew Wright, Associate Director (Employer Engagement & Work-based Learning)
Alongside employer engagement, our alumni communities were convened in the key cities, hosting receptions with local leadership and recent graduates to discuss their own career journey and hear about the latest labour market insight to support our strategic thinking in region.
King's Careers & Employability collaborated with LSE Careers to hold an alumni reception in Beijing, discussing careers support and current labour market trends with our alumni.An alumni reception in Hong Kong, discussing our own alumni career journeys and tips for current students returning to the city.
Planning for our 2026 series of events is already underway, with details to follow in spring next year, including an expansion of the cities where careers fairs will be hosted.
Interested organisations should follow our dedicated webpage for the latest information on events, dates and venues.
