“Vocational Education + Internet” has great potential
Premier Li Keqiang noted in the report that the Chinese government need to complete the task of poverty alleviation for more than 10 million poverty stricken rural residents and to relocate more than 2 million people for anti-poverty purposes this year.
Up until now, vocational education has failed to play a role in “the last one kilometer” of poverty alleviation. Many graduates from junior and senior high schools in rural areas can only rely on their physical strength to earn money because they have no skills and a few years after returning to their hometowns will become targets of poverty reduction.
The reason for this phenomenon is twofold. On the one hand, general education in some areas is failing to take into account the real requirements for students’ growth and social development and is thus less related to professional competence and students’ livelihoods. On the other hand, vocational education in many places is somewhat isolated and segmented, with the stereotyped view that vocational education is just to teach skills to feed a family, and so it has failed to achieve the desired effect.
With the rapid development of the Internet, the online education market has been gradually forming in primary and secondary schools, with user groups mainly comprised of students from schools and institutions, with many of them primary and secondary students in examination oriented education and pre-school education. In the field of vocational education, network coverage is scattered and isolated and the market gap in online vocational education is huge.
The purpose of vocational education is to cultivate applied talents and workers who possess a certain level of education, professional knowledge and skills. Compared with general education and adult education, vocational education focuses on the cultivation of practical skills and practical work abilities. Since vocational education requires a big investment in practice training equipment, the capital investment in vocational education is far higher than in ordinary secondary schools. A study from the World Bank shows that the average cost per student for vocational education and technical schools in developing countries is usually 153% higher than that for ordinary secondary schools. However, with the constraints of the current climate and traditional views, the financing channels for the vocational education industry are relatively limited, making it difficult to meet the needs of large-scale development.
In order to solve this problem, relevant persons have put forward proposals of diversified financing models including the formation of education industry groups and issuing shares. However, given that the current docking mechanism for the education market and the capital market is incomplete, these tentative plans are not operable. Considering the current market situation and due to financial issues, vocational education relies more and more on national policy support, and so public colleges and universities gradually become the main force of vocational education.
Analysts point out that vocational education is an important part of the education system in China and a significant means to solve the problem of a shortage of skilled workers in enterprises. It is expected that by 2020, the scale of the vocational education market will reach 1.24 trillion RMB. In addition, vocational education is mainly targeted at adults, who are naturally much more receptive, which is more in line with the “Internet+” model. As a result, the model of online education will effectively alleviate the pressure of an uneven allocation of resources, reduce the cost of education and become a breakthrough for vocational education.
As per the requirements of the State Council, by 2020, China will form a world-class modern vocational education system with Chinese characteristics, with the scale of higher vocational education accounting for more than a half of all higher education, with a group of normal undergraduate universities being directed to transform into Application Oriented Colleges. Due to its professional pertinence which can meet market demands, the rate of immediate employment of higher vocational colleges has even surpassed many "211" undergraduate universities. With the energetic support of new policies and the internal growth of demand, the vocational education market will usher in rapid expansion opportunities.
The development of vocational education not only needs policy guidance and support, but the coordination between and assistance from relevant upstream and downstream industries and enterprises can also be helpful. The merger of Weidong Cloud Education Group and DEMOS Group has played an exemplary role in the globalization and capital operation of the Chinese vocational education industry. Chairman of the Board of Weidong Cloud, Wang Duanrui, said in an interview that, "Firstly, the field of vocational education in China should perform in a more professional way. We should invite professional management teams and provide professional curriculum resources through professional capital operation. Only from a professional point of view, can we really provide both scientific and optimum vocational planning and skills training for users. In the face of a market worth hundreds of billions of yuan, a large number of vocational training institutions in China should also learn from other advanced institutions at home and abroad to introduce advanced curriculum resources and management experience. Weidong's overseas M&A is a typical model. Meanwhile, we also hope that more local companies can help the vocational education market grow bigger and stronger by optimizing their own product system and using the resources of an open network platform".
Developing vocational education to serve “Belt and Road Initiative”
Vice Minister of Education, Lu Xin, points out that with the impetus of “Made in China 2025”, “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” and “Belt and Road Initiatives”, as well as other major national strategies, higher vocational education will provide technical talent support and its reform and development will help it to enter into a golden period.
Those countries along “Belt and Road Initiative” are mostly emerging economies and developing countries, which are generally seeing increasing economic development and have strong demands for vocational education. However, the vocational education in these countries is less developed and the level of talent training is not very high, thus it is difficult to meet the needs of local economic and social development. Therefore, “Belt and Road Initiative” provides an important opportunity for China’s vocational education to “go out”.
Based on the construction projects in the countries along “Belt and Road Initiative”, Chinese educational training institutions should take the initiative to contact project construction enterprises and train professional talents according to the talent specification and standards required by the enterprises. At the same time, the requirements of follow-up projects should also be adhered to in order to help local vocational colleges define their orientation and talent-training standards, effectively construct a curriculum system, and improve their personnel training level so as to better serve local economic and social development.
However, is the vocational education system introduced from Europe suitable for the demands of the countries along “Belt and Road Initiative” or not? In this regard, Wang Duanrui noted that, “Since ancient times, China has advocated providing education for all people without discrimination. The transmission of education and culture has no borders. Faced with the different economic development requirements of different regions, Weidong Cloud Education will, through online communication, use its own platform advantages to push for a more appropriate curriculum system for users and customize segmented products and services for different countries and different industries. At the same time, Weidong Cloud Education will also upgrade and rebuild local professional facilities through multi-channel educational financing, and work together to formulate skill standards and professional teaching standards to serve local economic and social development”.
In order to improve its competitive ability and the quality of products and services, China needs those skilled talents with a high technical skill level, strong initiative and innovative ability. This cannot happen without a strong vocational education system. With regard to vigorously developing the vocational education field, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made instructions that vocational education is an integral part of the national educational system and human resource development and is an important channel to lead a vast number of young people to success. It shoulders important responsibilities in training diverse talents, instilling technical skills and promoting employment and entrepreneurship. We must attach great importance to it and accelerate its development.
By Securities Daily – China Capital Stock Network