Vocational education is indispensable for strengthening the economy, promoting high-quality development, and creating high quality of life. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that the development of vocational education has a promising future. Vocational education has responsibility for disseminating technical skills and cultivating talents, and these days is especially useful for helping develop China’s western regions.
From July 2016 to August 2019, working for the Qinghai Education Department as a young cadre, I gained a deep understanding of the development of local education, especially vocational education, finding that it not only shared traits with other underdeveloped areas, but also had its own special characteristics. Vocational education was somewhat divorced from economic and social development, and the training of workers and their employment were not closely connected. Dealing with these problems, as well as modernising and popularising vocational education, would require reform.
Vocational education both enhances the overall breadth of available education, and meets a need. In June 2014, the National Conference on Vocational Education issued its Decision on Accelerating the Development of Modern Vocational Education, proposing to train hundreds of millions of workers and technicians to form a world-class modern vocational-education system with Chinese characteristics. In Qinghai Province, it is necessary to match this system to Qinghai's industrial characteristics, promoting full employment, linking secondary and higher vocational education, and integrating it with general education. A human-resource supply base constructed in this manner will support industrial development and allow workers to enhance their abilities, which is conducive to overall development.
Enhancing school management is essential to strengthening vocational education. Training hundreds of millions of high-quality workers means offering diverse choices and multiple paths to success. Reforms have already been extensive, and have included setting up vocational-education groups, revising programme offerings, and integrating training with industry needs. 11 groups have been set up in Qinghai along with 25 master studios, and more than 1,300 companies have made use of the human resources on offer. Enhancements in investment, teaching and training have made vocational education more and more attractive.
Vocational education is significant to the national economy, to individual livelihoods, and to the current fight against poverty. One person with vocational training can pull his or her family out of poverty; many such can do so for an entire region. This was the thinking behind Qinghai's "Action Plan for Realising Dreams of Further Education". In 2018, 1,458 children from poor families were enrolled in provincial vocational colleges, and more than 2,400 such children were enrolled in vocational colleges in higher education. With the joint efforts of the Leading Office for the Youth Aiding Project, the government has managed to offer access for Tibetan youth to higher vocational colleges and universities in developed areas. Vocational education exists not only to provide training, but to provide opportunities, and to help the country grow stronger.
These days labour is regarded as glorious, skills precious, and creation of greatness. Everyone can be successful, and make full use of their talents. The strength of the nation requires both scientists and crafts-people. Developing modern vocational education will benefit everyone.
By Jing Degang, OUC Party Committee Secretary and President
People's Daily Page 5, 05 September 2019