Date:10/04/2010

China Southern Airline, one of the largest airlines in Asia, launched its cabin crew recruitment campaign in late March across the country. In as short as a week after the announcement, thousands of young candidates registered for the “beauty contest” for stewardess, an attractive job for many young girls in China. However, in this year’s recruitment, good-looking is no longer sufficient to get into the door. In addition to traditional assessments on the overall qualities of the candidates, English competency became a key in this year’s selection. “Stewardess selection is not a beauty contest, the nature of the job raises higher demand on the English competency and overall educational qualities of our cabin crew as China becomes more internationalized”, said the recruitment officer of Southern Airline.

Assisted by ATA, listening and written test became a key factor for candidate’s selection this time. The candidates were requested to take an on-site photo before entering the test room to prevent from impersonation. It is said that 5% of the candidates chose to give up the contest due to lack of confidence in their English competencies.