While a growing number of college graduates prioritize job security and seek government positions, there are also a growing number of others who value the entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to take chances.

At the Talent Meets Bertelsmann (TMB) 2011 China Workshop, a business plan competition, 19 students from universities on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, and Germany stood out from more than 500 applicants to participate in the final round. Last year, the number was 350.

During the workshop, the 19 finalists worked in five groups, on real business cases contributed by Bertelsmann's operations in China, covering mobile commerce, application development for Apple and Android platforms, and entry and expansion strategies for the book and magazine businesses.

Ji Hanbin, HR director of Bertelsmann China Corporate Center, says the competition can help nurture the entrepreneurial spirit in college students.

Yang Yue, freshman at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and one of the finalists, says the dreams of her generation in achieving things were often hampered by their lack of critical thinking in translating it into reality and perseverance in the pursuit of it.

"Through the competition, I realized entrepreneurship plays a significant role not only in starting a business, but also in other workplaces and fields," she says.

"As long as we make critical judgments, fear no challenge and work hard, we can be our own entrepreneurs, whether in commercial or academic fields."

Yang, with three other fellow winners, will go to Bertelsmann's Random House Publishing Group's headquarters in New York to participate in a business plan program.

Michael Behr, second-year student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, who is currently doing his one-month internship at Bertelsmann Asia Investments, says based on his observations of Chinese students at Stanford and those he met in China, they are more like Americans on the East Coast, inclined to look for security.

Chen Weichen, one of the two winners from last year's TMB, backs up Behr's comments. He says most of his classmates at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, chose to work in government organizations, state-owned enterprises, or big-name companies.

But Chen finally settled as a game publishing manager of a social game joint venture. He says he made the decision based on his understanding of entrepreneurship from last year's competition—the three Cs: creativity, courage and confidence.

For Ji Hanbin, entrepreneurship is a combination of innovation, partnership, execution, and integrity. "Many participants have developed a new understanding of entrepreneurship after the workshop," she says.

"We aim to help Chinese students prepare for their future careers by enabling them to understand and embrace entrepreneurship, and bring it into full play wherever they choose to work."