Chinese military to pick up future engineers from colleges

China's education and military authorities have jointly launched a programme to pick up future military engineers from selected university students.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) and the four general departments of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) plans to launch the programme from this year, said a MOE statement.
The plan was part of innovative ways to step up recruitment of the qualified engineers by PLA which is focussing on enrolling graduates to handle its high-tech new equipment in the army, navy and air force.
Programme candidates will be picked up from top university juniors who are already being trained by civil universities for national defense purposes and are set to formally join the service after graduation.

Selected students will undergo a 6- to 12-month-long field study in military academies, research institutes, troop units equipped with new kinds of armaments and armament production enterprises, according to the statement.
The ministry said the programme is intended to make best use of quality resources held by the civil and military circles to boost students' military engineering capabilities and speed up their readiness as future high-calibre engineering professionals.
Around 300 students will be selected for the new programme this year, it said.