From the issuance of the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Elderly Care Service Industry" by the State Council in 2013, which opened the first year of development of China's elderly care service industry, to the issuance of the first comprehensive policy document on the construction of the elderly care service talent team in 2023 by 12 departments including the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission - the "Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of the Elderly Care Service Talent Team" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), in the past 10 years, the elderly care service industry has achieved high-quality development from scratch, from few to many, from quantity to quality, and the concept of cultivating elderly care service talents has been running through it. Wu Yushao, President of the China Association for Social Welfare and Elderly Care Services and Vice Dean of the Institute of Aging at Fudan University, has long been engaged in research in the field of elderly care. He believes that the elderly care service industry is a developing new business model, and there are still development difficulties such as talent shortage and low level of resource integration. In addition, due to the diverse types of elderly care services, cross disciplinary integration, and strong practicality, the effective supply of elderly care service talents lags behind the deepening pace of aging to a certain extent. Officials from Yangpu District Social Welfare Institute in Shanghai and a private elderly care institution in Xuchang City, Henan Province, interviewed by reporters, also stated that the scarcity of young talents with professional knowledge and skills in elderly care services is a long-term development challenge faced by most elderly care institutions. With the transformation of the concept of elderly care to enjoying old age, the personalized needs of elderly people for life care and mental care have increased, which requires more professional and segmented elderly care service talents Wu Yushao told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network that elderly care service talents mainly include elderly care service skilled talents, elderly care service professional and technical talents, and elderly care service management talents. He analyzed that currently, the majority of skilled personnel in elderly care services, mainly caregivers, are middle-aged and elderly people, with fewer young people; The total number of professional and technical talents in elderly care services, such as elderly social workers and health managers, is insufficient; Due to the long training period, there is also a serious shortage of talents in elderly care service management. But there is no doubt that the silver haired economy is the most certain and stable sunrise industry in China's future Wu Yushao stated that the huge talent gap indicates broad employment and entrepreneurship prospects, and many possibilities in the elderly care service industry are waiting for young talents to explore and create. Fortunately, in recent years, the number of applicants and the employment rate of graduates in the field of elderly care services have steadily increased. The first undergraduate institution in China's civil affairs field, Civil Affairs Vocational University, has also established a bachelor's degree program in intelligent health elderly care management. "Cultivating more professional and warm elderly care service talents has become a consensus." He suggested that elderly care institutions can start from talent source channels, improving talent quality and ability, improving talent evaluation mechanisms, attaching importance to talent utilization management, and improving guarantee and incentive measures to attract young people to join the elderly care service industry and cultivate professional talents who can provide various forms of services such as life care, rehabilitation services, emergency rescue, spiritual comfort, psychological counseling, etc. On the one hand, efforts should be made to address the core issue of salary security, adhering to the principle of "more workers, more skilled workers, more rewards", increasing praise and incentives, and guiding elderly care service institutions to establish a salary distribution system based on job value, ability quality, and performance contribution. On the other hand, we will focus on talent utilization and strengthen the management of elderly care service talents through optimizing job allocation and improving talent utilization mechanisms, continuously injecting youthful energy into the elderly care service industry. Wu Yushao pointed out that in recent years, the silver economy has continued to unleash its development potential, attracting many young people to join it. New professions such as "elderly care workers" and "elderly ability assessors" have become "new stars" in the job market, and graduates of nursing related majors, which were once rarely sought after, have become "hot cakes". However, overall, the elderly care service industry still faces development challenges such as low entry barriers, lack of professional talents, a gap between middle-aged and young people, and low treatment. The "14th Five Year Plan for the Development of National Aging Industry and Elderly Care Service System" also points out that there are still problems such as unbalanced and insufficient development of China's aging industry and elderly care services, and the shortage of professional talents, especially nursing staff, is one of the main manifestations. Fan Jinlin, a young man born in 1995, runs five nursing homes in Xuchang City, Henan Province. In 2022, he will explore the operation transformation of the nursing home with the help of Internet operation thinking, and spend 1.2 million yuan to build an "online celebrity nursing home". The hospital has a full range of e-sports rooms, gyms, etc. The elderly can enjoy the cost relief benefits within the policy scope, even free accommodation, by shooting short videos. Fan Jinlin frankly stated that the transformation and development of nursing homes need to rely on more young people. However, in reality, there has been a long-term shortage of frontline young nursing staff and social workers. Compared to nursing staff with a professional background in nursing, nursing staff in the field of elderly care and management have lower salaries and benefits. This has also led to graduates in nursing related majors being more willing to choose "big companies" in nursing homes to brush their resumes, accumulate enough frontline nursing experience, and then switch to private nursing institutions as management personnel. "There are not many young people who truly insist on being frontline nursing staff, relying on a belief." "Compared to management positions, the demand for young talents in frontline nursing positions is even more scarce," Cheng Mingming, an associate professor at the School of Social Sciences of Shanghai University, told reporters. During their visits and research on nursing homes, they found that many private nursing service institutions often have relatively simple recruitment requirements for nursing staff, mostly limited to "having Love, patience, and sense of responsibility" for age, education The requirements for professional skills certificates and other aspects have a low threshold. Secondly, the nursing staff in nursing homes are mainly middle-aged people, with a low proportion of social workers, and most of them are nursing staff transferred to other positions; Meanwhile, the current situation of low salaries and slow promotion for both nursing staff and social workers has led to the loss of young people. Huang Rongyan, Vice President of Yangpu District Social Welfare Institute in Shanghai, also stated that compared to public elderly care institutions, young people are more willing to go to private elderly care institutions. In the past few years, half of the interns were able to stay, but now less than one-third are staying. However, the number of elderly residents continues to increase, and there are even queues waiting for them to move in. To motivate young people to enter the workforce and stick to the elderly care industry, various regions have also introduced corresponding support policies. In 2019, Yangpu District implemented the policy of cultivating top-notch skilled talents in elderly care institutions and supporting the overall team improvement, becoming the first urban area in Shanghai to form a system to promote the development of elderly care talents; In 2023, we will comprehensively optimize the policy framework for supporting the talent pool in elderly care services by focusing on talent attraction, retention, and training. The Yangpu District Social Welfare Institute has also adopted a hierarchical responsibility implementation "branch system" organizational management system, where outstanding young nursing staff can be promoted to branch directors and receive corresponding salary subsidies; Actively embracing the concept of smart elderly care, establishing "digital nursing homes", maximizing the role of talent as role models, and driving more young people to enter the elderly care industry; Considering that most of the employees in the institute are migrant workers from other places who come to Shanghai for work, the institute has also established a "Beautiful College" to help employees with problems such as job burnout and developmental confusion to relieve psychological stress through innovative scenario based courses. Qiao Yihao, the director of the Yangpu District Social Welfare Institute in Shanghai, stated that in the future, efforts will continue to be made in three areas - ensuring competitive salary and benefits, providing more opportunities for young people to train and "recharge", and empowering young people to showcase their talents, so that more Generation Z youth can rise to the occasion. (New Society)