Newsweek丨Over 8,000 people signed up for 300 places. What new changes are coming to vocational education?
This year, the enrollment of some vocational and technical schools has been surprisingly popular. Not long ago, a vocational school in Beijing planned to recruit 800 students on the day of its independent admissions interview, but thousands of parents and students came to the scene. The school's original enrollment period of four days was full in one day. This week, Zhuhai Gree Technical School also welcomed its first batch of students. This year, the school enrolled students for the first time. The plan was to recruit 300 people, but it attracted more than 8,000 students to sign up.
In vocational schools, from the past "you can't even persuade them to go" to the current "you can't grab them", what changes have happened in the meantime? Faced with the overwhelming demand from a large number of families and students, what is the most important thing for vocational education at present?
There are 300 enrollment places, and more than 8,000 people have signed up, with the enrollment ratio reaching 26:1. The originally scheduled one-month registration period was filled up in five days. Zhuhai Gree Technical School officially opened on October 4. There is a candidate from Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. Her high school entrance examination score exceeded the minimum score of the local public high school by nearly 200 points. She finally decided to give up the opportunity of ordinary high school and enroll in the intelligent equipment operation and maintenance major of Gree Technical School.
Student parent Tu Sheng: She had been admitted to the elite class of a local high school and had already begun military training. At this time, Gree Technical School began to release enrollment announcements. She didn't like learning book knowledge very much, but later she thought that since she didn't like reading so much, she might consider other channels.
In the eyes of some parents and students, Gree Technical School is popular because there are well-known manufacturing companies behind it and there are potential employment opportunities. The admission brochure of Gree Technical School clearly states, "Enter the school and you will join the company, and you will be suitable for the job after graduation." Students can have priority to enter Gree Electric Appliances and industrial chain enterprises for internship and employment.
Gree Technical School is recruiting students for the first time this year, and Zhejiang Commercial Technician College, which has been open for many years, seems to be even more popular. The application ratio for the Baking and Dessert major this year is close to 50:1. The school revealed that the application ratio for this major last year was 26:1, which is equivalent to doubling the difficulty of applying this year.
Jin Ziqiao: I didn’t know the competition was so fierce, but if I really knew I would still sign up here, because no matter what you do, your interest is the most important. Most of the people in our class are interested in baking and desserts, and then choose this major.
The culinary department of this school has established multiple skill master studios and established internship bases in hundreds of corporate stores. The employment rate of graduates reaches 98%. Last year, a student won the world-class baking competition, which also brought more attention to the baking and dessert major.
Fan Longlong, head of admissions and employment at Zhejiang Commercial Technician College: Parents and children are more willing to choose a professional direction that is visible and can give them a clear career plan for the future. They choose a certain professional field in advance to study deeply and find a career goal and career path for their future.
This year, other vocational schools are also seeing a rush of applications because of the Nakamoto Comprehensive Program. Through three years of study in a secondary vocational school, there is no need to take the college entrance examination. After passing the transfer assessment, students can directly enter the corresponding undergraduate institution. There are a total of 318 enrollment quotas for Guangzhou’s Central Education Program, attracting more than 9,500 applicants, with an enrollment ratio of 30:1. Lin Chongyuan, who scored 699 points in the high school entrance examination, is far above the ordinary high school score line, but he chose Zhongben Pass. He will study at Guangzhou Information Technology Vocational School for three years. After passing the transfer examination, he can be promoted to the software engineering technology major of Guangzhou Vocational and Technical University.
Whether it is for employment or further education, the appeal of vocational education is increasing. However, the popularity of popular schools and popular majors also hides another reality: compared with the growing demand, whether high-quality vocational education resources can meet the growing demand.
Gree Technical School is popular, but some people say that it is not the vocational school that is popular, but the companies behind it. What parents and students value may not be the words "vocational education", but the visible and tangible employment opportunities after graduation. This exactly points out the problem. It is not that parents and students are unwilling to choose vocational schools, but that the supply of satisfactory vocational schools is still not enough.
From an enterprise's point of view, it is also a helplessness to run its own schools to cultivate talents. More than one business leader has publicly stated that it is difficult to recruit workers, and even more difficult to recruit highly skilled talents. Much of the existing vocational education still does not meet the needs of enterprises and cannot keep up with the pace of industrial changes. If a company cannot recruit the right people, it will have to go out on its own. Parents are worried and businesses are not satisfied. Both ends are dissatisfied. What they lack is actually the same thing: high-quality vocational education.
In the new semester, Wuhan Yangtze Engineering Vocational and Technical College and a new Yushu Science and Technology Industrial College have officially organized classes. The college was co-founded by Yushu Technology and the school. The college's embodied intelligence innovation class was formed by selecting 100 students from freshmen majoring in artificial intelligence technology application and electrical automation technology.
Why do companies want to set up colleges themselves? Yushu's considerations are similar to Gree's. The embodied intelligence track has a very urgent need for applied talents, and the existing vocational education system is sometimes difficult to meet the requirements.
Yang Li, ecological partner and agent of Yushu Hubei Province: The traditional vocational education model is very effective in some currently mature types of work, but for new tracks such as embodied intelligence that are developing very rapidly, insufficient course materials and practical training scenarios will lead to a gap between the students trained and the talents currently urgently needed on the production line. Disruptions will lengthen the time for students' on-the-job training and consume a lot of unnecessary resources. Therefore, we proactively solve these problems in the school classroom to facilitate students' employment.
It has become a trend in recent years for industry leading companies to participate in or host vocational schools. Currently, CATL, Huawei, BYD and other companies are co-building industrial colleges, while Gree Technical School is directly moving into independent education. In terms of policy advancement, the Vocational Education Law revised in 2022 also clearly proposes to give full play to the important role of enterprises in running schools. In June this year, the “15th Five-Year Plan for Education Development” issued by the State Council further proposed that leading enterprises in the industry should be encouraged to organize or participate in the establishment of vocational schools.
Xu Guoqing, Director of the Institute of Vocational Education and Adult Education at East China Normal University: We deeply feel that in recent years, companies have become more and more active in participating in vocational education. Relevant personnel have repeatedly reported that many front-line technicians are now in their 50s, and there are almost no young and middle-aged teams, so they are very anxious. In the context of a serious shortage of senior technicians, companies have to take proactive measures.
The promotion of vocational education by enterprises also points directly to the long-term problems of vocational education. Last year, the Ministry of Education launched the "High-Skilled Talent Cluster Training Plan" for vocational education. It selected 6 fields such as new energy vehicles and new energy vehicles that are urgently needed in the country's advanced manufacturing production lines and have a relatively large gap in skilled talent. It systematically promoted the joint reform of key elements of teaching in order to solve the current problems of vocational education talent training that does not match the development of industry, economy, and society, and that schools are relatively closed and have low adaptability.
This week, in the welding training workshop of Wuhan Vocational and Technical College of Shipbuilding, students will not only practice manual welding, but also learn to operate welding robots. This major, which is in full swing now, was in danger of being canceled ten years ago. In 2017, there were only 40 students enrolled in the entire major.
On the one hand, there is a serious shortage of talents in the field of ship welding across the country. On the other hand, students are unwilling to apply for the welding major. In 2024, Sun Shuxia, head of the ship intelligent welding technology major at Wuhan Vocational and Technical College of Shipbuilding, teamed up with relevant industry associations to conduct a survey of more than 400 shipbuilding and marine equipment companies. Within five years, the demand for highly skilled talents in related industries will increase by 85,000 people, leaving a talent gap of approximately 45,000 people. From the perspective of vocational education, Sun Shuxia believes that the update speed of school curriculum and equipment is far behind the pace of corporate production lines, and this must be changed.
Majors, practical training scenarios, courses, teaching materials, and teachers must be updated. In 2018, the school began to introduce two welding robots, and now there are 24 welding robots of various types. Different types of production scenes can be set up at any time according to the needs of teaching projects and competitions, and special order-based welding training is carried out with enterprises. Students have also begun to win gold and silver in various international and domestic competitions such as the World Vocational College Skills Competition. This year, the number of students enrolled has increased to 160. Intelligent transformation and upgrading have made a major that was almost discontinued regain the favor of students, and output more adaptable high-skilled talents for the industry.
Ten years ago, the "Manufacturing Talent Development Planning Guide" prepared by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments predicted that by 2025, there will be a talent gap of nearly 30 million people in the top ten key areas of my country's manufacturing industry, with a gap rate as high as 48%. Ten years later, such predictions have been confirmed in reality. Such a large-scale talent gap naturally puts forward more urgent requirements for current vocational education.
In February this year, the Ministry of Education issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Key Elements of Vocational Education Teaching", proposing to dynamically adjust professional settings and promote the reform of courses, teaching materials, teachers and practical training. The "Outline of the Plan for Building a Powerful Country in Education (2024-2035)" clearly states that "increasing policy support for industry, finance, finance, and employment, etc., and increasing new education funds to increase support for vocational education."
At present, more and more people have realized the value of skilled talents and begun to make choices. At this time, new requirements are put forward for the entire country's education system. The vocational education system must move towards a more "professional" track. The training room must be connected to the real production line, and the education system must be connected to industrial changes more quickly. Only in this way can young talents see a bigger stage through vocational education, and truly achieve their goals, and their skills can illuminate their future.
