Vocational training, skilled workers key to building modern country

Speaking on vocational education recently, President Xi Jinping said that vocational education has a bright future and great potential in China's new journey to become a modern socialist country. He stressed that the country should optimize the orientation of vocational education, strengthen cooperation between schools and enterprises, develop high-quality vocational colleges, and accelerate the establishment of a modern vocational education system to cultivate more talents and skilled workers.

He emphasized that China's economic development depends on the real economy, for which the country needs a large number of professional personnel and skilled workers. Different sectors and fields now have more urgent requirements for skilled workers. China needs to cultivate a large army of talents with excellent craftsmanship. In particular, digital talents in huge numbers will be required to build a knowledge-based, and technology-innovation-oriented workforce.

Due to the deep-rooted prejudice, people tend to treat vocational education as being inferior to academic learning. As such, the development of vocational education has been restricted. To change the situation, the authorities have made continuous efforts in top-level design in recent years. In January 2019, the State Council, China's Cabinet, introduced a document giving equal importance to vocational education and general education. Since 2019, the Ministry of Education has approved 27 schools to independently provide vocational education at the undergraduate level. And recently, the ministry issued two documents to formally establish a national system for the management of undergraduate-level vocational education.

At present, there are 11,300 vocational schools across China with 30.88 million students, forming the world's largest vocational education system and cultivating a large number of skilled workers. More than 70 percent of these students come from rural areas and they chose vocational education so they could change the fate of their families and realize their personal dreams.

Vocational education plays a vital role in the cultivation of professional talents. If practical measures are taken to promote the spirit of craftsmanship and raise the social status of skilled workers at the policy and institutional levels, vocational education will provide better talent and technological support for China to become a modern socialist country.