August 29 2008 marks the official launch of the Microsoft IT Academy (ITA) Program in China. Aiming to train IT talents through innovative IT curriculum reforms, the program serves as a connection between students, educators and corporations. Through the program, Microsoft is committed to helping Chinese higher educational institutions to train IT workers with practical skills in demand so as to fill in the shortage in IT workforce accelerated by the fast development of information industry. Microsoft will offer world class IT curriculum and assistance to the participating schools in their educational reform and support the training and development of teachers. Students will be able to master the cutting-edge technologies through practical training and lay a solid foundation for their future employment and career development.

As the market promoter and implementer of the Microsoft ITA program, ATA is responsible for program marketing and execution.

A seminar organized by ATA and China Human Resources Association was underway in Beijing Media Plaza on September 5, 2008 with HR recruiting managers from over 70 companies attended, including leading recruiters like China Telecom, Legend, and Citi Bank. The theme of the seminar focused on improving University graduates recruitment efficiency through standardized tests.


In recent years, as the number of graduates entering the workforce increases rapidly, it has become increasingly challenging for companies to select the suitable candidates from an enormous amount of resumes. According to a survey conducted in the seminar, over 50% of companies recruit more than 50 fresh graduates each year through campus recruiting campaign, and over 10% of companies recruit over 500 fresh graduates each year in the same way. As a result, the HR staff in these companies are faced with heavy workload of resume screening, paper-based test administrations and interviews etc... Therefore, issues such as ¡®how to design better questions so that qualities matching job competence profile are identified in the initial screening stage¡¯; and ¡®how to organize large-scale campus recruitment test administrations to gain the utmost efficiency¡¯ have become hot topics of discussions for today¡¯s recruiting managers.

The seminar discussed the roles of computer-based standardized testing to help improve graduate recruiting process by enhancing efficiency and security while lowering cost. One of the ATA psychometricians shared with the audience on test design, testing process improvement and risk control. Representative from Microsoft China also presented their views and experiences in applying CBT in their university campus recruitment activities.

The seminar provided inspirations to the audience and opened up their minds in future talent assessment process.