The “Realising Dreams of Further Education” programme for migrant workers in Fujian, since its implementation in 2017, has enabled over 34,000 workers to gain degree education. Among the first graduates, the degrees open new career opportunities for some, while for others they enhance their learning abilities and salaries.

In a workshop at Wanlong Diamond Tools in the Quanzhou Development Zone, Fujian Province, Tu Weifeng, a worker, is holding a junior-college diploma in his left hand and a letter of admission to an undergraduate Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation programme in his right. He told Workers' Daily enthusiastically: "I'm getting my degree upgraded again."

Tu Weifeng decided to migrate to Fujian for work after graduating from junior middle school in order to reduce the financial burden on his family. After having been rejected by many companies due to his lack of education, he signed up for the programme, and ended up being promoted into a key technical position, and then to deputy director of the workshop. Aware of the benefits of enhanced academic qualifications, he has now decided to continue pursuing degree education.

The reporter learned that it has not been unusual for these first graduates to seek to change their careers by way of enhanced qualifications, as Tu Weifeng did.

Embracing New Possibilities with Confidence

In the Luojiang Intelligent Equipment Industrial Park, Quanzhou, Chen Yongbao, 31, an engineer with Fujian Tietuo Machinery, was busy in the CNC “intelligent” (IT-based) workshop, equipped with fiberoptic-laser and robotic cutting machines, among other types of equipment. He pointed to the white signal tower outside the workshop and told the reporter: "5G is coming!"

Tietuo Machinery is the first manufacturing company to use 5G in the industrial park. The new infrastructure enables a number of IT-based industrial projects, such as cloud services for customers visiting the factory, intelligent manufacturing visualisation, and remote equipment troubleshooting; these are becoming major aspects of the work of engineers such as Chen Yongbao.

Having developed the habit as a student of the programme, he is diligent with scheduling, dividing each day into periods in order to organise product monitoring, technical support, troubleshooting, and so on.

Before 2017, Chen Yongbao averaged over 12 hours a day at work. Thanks to his training he is now down to eight; he says that having a degree has freed him from the "996" (9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week) work system most workers in China are expected to follow.

"At work I found my knowledge lacking," he told the reporter. Before entering the programme, the English instruction manuals were almost useless to him. Now, however, he has learned enough English to be able to quickly spot the sources of defects.

According to Chen Yongbao, the company has recently been engaged in the construction and technical transformation of the new plant area, and a number of new processes, such as automatic cutting and robotic welding, have been introduced. He likes to joke that, with only a junior-college degree, he ranks poorly against the machines. Now, however, he can sit in front of the company’s self-developed remote-service system, with full confidence, to provide customers with service solutions related to online product monitoring and troubleshooting. "My confidence grows along with my training", he said smiling.

Enhancing the Ability of Students to Learn Through Continuing Education

While Chen Yongbao was learning to read English, Lin Qingfang, a project manager for Energy Engineering Company (part of the Ningde Dejing Group), was learning to write construction diaries.

In 2017, Lin Qingfang, not wanting to be a driver all his life, signed up for the Action Plan to change his life and bid farewell to living "paycheck to paycheck". After graduation, he became a project manager, earning 1,000 yuan/month more than before.

You Shangyin, a colleague and classmate of Lin Qingfang, had a similar hope for change. When he signed up for the programme, this electrical engineer could not understand drawings. Now he has become a manager at Dejing Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

In 2017, with the support of the Provincial Federation of Trade Unions and Fujian Radio and Television University (RTVU), Ningde RTVU's first programme offering, Electrical Automation Technology, was launched at the Dejing Group. 29 of its front-line workers were able to choose from the classes Principles of Electric Circuits, Fundamentals of Electronics, and Automatic Control Theory without leaving the workshop. Lin Qingfang and You Shangyin were among the first students.

The class has remained functional even though its students have graduated, with teachers providing free technical consultation, and students allowed to go back to the laboratory on campus to discuss production problems that could not be solved in the workshop.

Zhou Ridi, Chairman of the Dejing Group, noted that degree education should align with the expectations of employees, so that they can enhance their job skills and educational levels without having to quit work. For this, they should be trained within the contexts of their workplaces, and with an eye not just to their qualifications but also their ability to continue learning.

Helping Students Realise Their Better Selves

Before getting a diploma, Tu Weifeng looked into undergraduate programmes, and recommended academic upgrading to Su Jinshu, 38, a co-worker. Last year, Su became a junior-college student of Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation at Quanzhou RTVU.

During the COVID-19 epidemic this year, with the help of his courses, Tu Weifeng was able to debug and install an atomizing automatic air-purification unit in the fume extractor of the factory's mechanical pumps. "The previous unit filtered the waste gas from the oil layer and discharged it into the air, harming the equipment while polluting the atmosphere." Su Jinshu told the reporter that, last year, he and his fellow workers designed an atomization system which recycles the oil in waste gas and returns it to the mechanical pump; this was part of their Tooling Improvement class, included in the programme. He smiled: "I feel stronger and more skilled than ever.”

At Ningde Contemporary Amperex Technology, Cui Meizhi, director of the quality-management department, and student representative, gave suggestions for the teaching plan for the following year. "We want more than diplomas," she said. She hopes that the company and the RTVU will jointly develop more short-video courses suitable for use during breaks in order to help employees make better use of their limited time.

A spokesperson for the Fujian Provincial Federation of Trade Unions said that, since 2017, more than 34,000 Fujian workers have participated in the programme. In the future, the federation will work with relevant government departments to meet industry and enterprise training needs through programmes, teaching plans and curricula, with a focus on innovative mobile learning, micro courses, live classroom broadcasts, in-company teaching, and university-enterprise collaborations, so as to help more employees realise their better selves.

Written by Li Runzhao and Lin Yuxian, reprinted from Workers’ Daily