How did this happen? In 2010, around the time when our most recent graduates entered secondary school, the internet economy in China was still in its nascent stage. Since then, the world has taken multiple strides, with the new economy and big tech leading the way.

During this transition, most graduates were ensconced in various bricks-and-mortar educational institutions. When they left school last year, they found themselves facing the worst employment landscape since 2003.

Amid the job cuts and business shutdowns, Hong Kong’s young people have also had to navigate relentless technological disruptions. A chasm has opened up between the accelerating pace of change and the ability of our graduates – and our governing systems – to adapt to such change.

We must retool to enable young people to keep pace. Instead of artificially creating temporary jobs for our graduates ex post facto, we should be preparing them to adapt to a new era of jobs.

For a start, we should redefine the social contract between educators and students. Our conveyor-belt-like education system is a relic in need of an update. Society does not have the patience to wait around for universities to adapt their curriculums and teach students new skills, especially when emerging online education platforms are doing it faster and cheaper.

Furthermore, most jobs nowadays demand multidisciplinary expertise. To require 18-year-olds to lock into a single field of study, based on public examination results with rapidly expiring content, means we risk creating a workforce that might not suit our economic needs.

A new social contract between students and employees is also needed. Digital ubiquity and globalisation have lowered entry barriers and created a more competitive labour environment. Students should abandon the misconception that learning ceases on graduation.

Rather than expecting our knowledge to last for decades, employees should behave as lifelong students and show initiative to upgrade their skills to fit societal needs. Similarly, employers should provide an avenue for lifelong learning within their company’s framework.

Education providers must also change. When private e-learning platforms can offer courses online to anyone around the world, so should their university counterparts. Universities must experiment with turning over a curriculum much faster and stipulate a use-by date, much like any other perishable product in a marketplace.

The misalignment between what students learn and the actual demand of the job market has left many graduates unmoored. It is time to forge more university-industry partnerships that provide academic credit for structured work experience. Indeed, injecting new energy into the workplace will benefit both the company and the employees.

Also, society should stop stigmatising dropouts and learn to assess candidates based on what they can do, rather than what it says on their gilt-framed diplomas.

A university degree once helped us to find a job. But, before long, future generations might have to create their own.

It would be remiss to pretend that the effects of the downturn will disappear soon. But rather than moulding our young graduates into a workforce that society might not need, we should encourage them to keep learning and adapting, to find their balance in the midst of change. For lack of a better solution at present, this might be the only sensible response.

Adam Au is the head of legal at a Hong Kong-based health care group