On 21 November, the 2024 World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference commenced.

Concurrently, the parallel session on "Integration of Vocational Education and Lifelong Learning" was held in Tianjin. The session gathered over 200 participants, including government officials, representatives from international organisations, educational experts and scholars from 11 countries and regions worldwide, as well as secretaries and presidents from seven Chinese vocational institutions. The session was chaired by Wang Qiming, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the Open University of China (OUC).

The conference explored the significance of lifelong vocational and technical education in developing new quality productive forces and empowering industrial transformation and upgrading. It facilitated the exchange of strategies, pathways, and experiences in the integration of vocational education and lifelong learning in the digital age across various countries and regions. Additionally, the conference reached a consensus on several key areas, including the coordinated development mechanisms of vocational and technical education, open education, higher education, and continuing education under the digital context, the development and international cooperation of lifelong vocational education resources, and the institutional guarantees for a modern lifelong vocational education system.

During the session, the "OUC Domestic Service" training initiative was launched. The OUC will annually train 300,000 domestic service workers, 30,000 domestic service training instructors, and 10,000 domestic service managers. Additionally, it will provide free learning platforms for students and the general public. Since its inception in 2017, the "OUC Domestic Service" brand training project has developed 231 digital course resources for eight positions, including maternal and child care, covering over 3.86 million learners. More than 100,000 individuals have obtained training certificates, and nearly 80,000 have established lifelong learning accounts in the credit bank to store their learning outcomes.

This parallel session was sponsored by the Department of Vocational and Adult Education of the Ministry of Education, organised by the OUC, and co-organised by Tianjin Open University.

Reprinted by OUC News Network from Guangming Daily