Beijing, 15 January 2020 (Xinhua News Agency) - Sun Chunlan, a member of the Standing Committee of the 19th CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and Vice Premier of the State Council, underlined during her survey of the Open University of China (OUC) on 15 January that General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on vocational education should be further implemented and that the decisions and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council to deepen vocational education reform, to optimise the structure of highly skilled professionals, and to offer support for high quality economic and social development should be earnestly put in place.

Sun Chunlan inspected the OUC's “internet + university” exhibition centre, canvassed the construction of the information management service platform for vocational skill grade certificates and the information platform for a national credit bank, and listened to a report on vocational education reform by responsible personnel from relevant departments. She pointed out that since the implementation of the National Vocational Education Reform and Implementation Plan, policy dividends have been continuously gathered and released, various reform measures have begun to take, the task to enlarge higher vocational enrolment has been exceeded, and great changes have taken place in vocational education. Continuous efforts shall be made to put major policies into effect and key tasks into execution to promote the high quality development of vocational education.

Sun Chunlan underlined that quality is the lifeline of vocational education. The implementation of the three-year action plan to improve quality and cultivation should be deepened. In view of the current problems facing the reform and development of vocational education, efforts should be focused on making up for the shortage in teaching implementation and teaching staff to promote the meaningful development of vocational education, highlighting its features and levels. Efforts should be made to increase the number of “dual-qualification” teaching staff to improve the qualification threshold and appointment management, paying attention to employing teachers from enterprises and optimising the capacity structure of teaching staff. Efforts should be made to ensure the implementation of the plan to build high level vocational schools and majors with Chinese characteristics, to improve the system for selecting teaching materials and the teaching materials catalogue, to increase practical training and operation, and to improve the assessment and evaluation mechanism in line with the characteristics of vocational education by adhering to the conditions of the market, industries, and vocational major setup. Efforts should be made to highlight the characteristics of different types of vocational education in order to promote integration between industry and education and cooperation between enterprises and colleges, to put tax and financial policies into effect, and to encourage enterprises of various types of ownership to run vocational schools. Efforts should be made to connect degree education certificates and vocational skill grade certificates, to strictly control the quality of vocational skill grade certificates, to enhance the consistent cultivation of vocational education, to advance the construction of the national credit bank, to promote the accumulation and transfer of learning outcomes, and to expand channels for skilled professional to engage in lifelong learning and to continue to grow.

Contributed by Xinhuanet