The Chinese government's decision which will see the face of professional certificate examinations change have won support from the public.

The State Council of China issued a notice to streamline professional certificate exams at the beginning of the month, and feedback from the public so far has been very supportive.

As high as 81.9 percent Chinese support government's policy to streamline professional certificate exam, according to a survey released here on Monday.

Though professional certificates are important tools to evaluate people's professional competence, there are too many professional certificate exams, said the notice.

Different departments or organizations even hold duplicated exams, and some organizations and companies hold exams just for profit, according to the notice.

Among the 3,143 respondents, 89.7 percent have taken part in professional certificate exams, revealed the survey conducted by the China Youth Daily and the www. tencent.com.

The survey said 34.5 percent of respondents have one professional certificate, 29.6 percent have two professional certificates and 27.6 percent have three.

Zhang Jing, a postgraduate of Beijing-based Renmin University said "it's very difficult to find a job at present and more certificates might be helpful in job hunting."

Qu Zhonghua, senior manager responsible for professional training at IBM China said "the professional certificate does not mean the certificate holder have good practical competence."

"There are too many certificate exams and people may pay 300 yuan (41.72 US dollars) to 500 yuan and can easily get certificates after they join certain training programs," he said.

The survey revealed that 32.3 percent of people spent 1,000 yuan for professional certificate, 38.6 percent spent 1,000 to 5,000 yuan and 10.9 percent spent 5,000 to 10,000 yuan.

Organizers can only charge the examinees fees according to related government price policy and all activity concerned with the exams should not be organized for profit making, the circular read, stressing violators will be punished, but without more elaboration.

Insiders said a new exam means new teaching materials, books and training programs for examinees which will bring huge profits to organizers, which means the real beneficiaries from the exams are not the students and other examinees, insiders were quoted by the paper as saying.

Only exams held in conformity with related laws, executive regulations or resolutions by the State Council can be retained and the name of these exams will be released to the public after nationwide investigations have finished.

The State Council ordered local personnel and labor departments to complete investigations by April 30.

In 2007, 9.956 million Chinese passed various professional certificate exams, according to the China Youth Daily Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2008)