Smoothing the virtuous cycle of education technology talents and empowering new productive forces

What is the key to developing new productive forces? Recently, the "Opinions on Developing New Productivity Productivity" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council gave a clear answer. One of the important deployments is to "coordinate and promote the integrated reform of the educational science and technology talent system and mechanism."

Education, technology, and talents are closely connected. Education is responsible for "educating people", science and technology is responsible for "innovation", and talents are responsible for "employing people". The people trained by the school must be able to meet the needs of industry, the results of the laboratory must be able to be put on the production line, and all kinds of talents must have a stage to display their talents. Only the three are interconnected and work together to form a joint force to promote development. “In accordance with the requirements for developing new productive forces, we must smoothen the virtuous cycle of education, science and technology, and talents.” The "Opinions" have made systematic arrangements around this requirement, and each item points to practical issues.

Technology: Strengthen the dominant position of enterprises and open up the blocking points for the transformation of achievements

Among the five major tasks deployed in the "Opinions", "vigorously promoting scientific and technological innovation" ranks first. Scientific and technological innovation can give birth to new industries, new models, and new driving forces, and is a core element in developing new productive forces. For a long time, the problem of "two skins" between science and technology and economy has been prominent. Many scientific research results remain at the level of papers and patents, and are difficult to transform into actual productivity. In this regard, the "Opinions" put forward the following contents, which strengthen the status of enterprises as the main body of scientific and technological innovation and allow enterprises that best understand market needs to play a greater role in innovation.

The first is to increase support for enterprise innovation. The "Opinions" propose to establish an enterprise R&D reserve system, increase the super deduction ratio of enterprise R&D expenses, and upgrade enterprise R&D projects that meet national strategic needs to national projects according to procedures, and support capable private enterprises to take the lead in undertaking major national technological research tasks.

The second is to strengthen application-oriented evaluation. The value of scientific and technological achievements must ultimately be tested in application. The "Opinions" propose to establish a mechanism for user assessment and evaluation results, and explore the entire process evaluation of scientific and technological projects. "Integrated deployment of research and development and transformation tasks during project establishment, and assessment of application performance during acceptance", striving to solve the problem of disconnection between technology development and achievement transformation.

The third is to lower the threshold for achievement transformation. The "Opinions" propose to guide universities and scientific research institutes to license scientific and technological achievements to small, medium and micro enterprises according to the use first and pay later method.

The key to making these measures truly effective lies in the implementation of supporting packages. Relevant departments must refine the operating methods of systems such as corporate R&D reserves and full-process evaluation of science and technology projects as soon as possible. All localities must increase the opening of application scenarios so that companies dare to invest, take the lead, and gain rewards, and effectively improve the level of transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements.

Talent: Improve evaluation and incentives, smooth flow channels

Talent is the primary resource and the most active and decisive agent in developing new productive forces. Whether scientific and technological innovation can achieve breakthroughs depends to a large extent on whether talents can be used well and effectively.

First, in terms of evaluation and incentives, the "Opinions" call for accelerating the appropriate decoupling of evaluation and incentives for scientific researchers from project application, paper publishing, and reward evaluation, and prevent the determination of salary, professional titles, and benefits simply based on talent "hats." This means that when evaluating talents, we need to pay more attention to actual contributions and innovative results, so that those who have achieved actual results can receive due recognition.

Second, in terms of flow allocation, the "Opinions" propose to speed up the removal of various hidden barriers and smooth the channels for talent exchange in universities, scientific research institutes, and enterprises. Talent flows smoothly among different entities, and knowledge and technology will also spread accordingly.

Third, in terms of skilled personnel, the development of new productive forces requires not only scientists and engineers, but also a large number of high-quality workers who master new technologies and new processes. The "Opinions" propose to improve the "new eight-level workers" vocational skills grade system to smooth the upward development path for industrial workers; improve the lifelong vocational skills training system and implement a manufacturing talent support plan.

Therefore, we need to refine the requirements for moderate decoupling into operable assessment methods, accelerate the establishment of a talent evaluation system oriented by innovative value, ability, and contribution, promote the implementation of the reform of the salary system of universities and scientific research institutes, explore specific paths for the two-way flow of talents between universities, institutions, and enterprises, so that scientific researchers and skilled talents have a real sense of gain in terms of remuneration and development.

Education: Connect with industry needs and improve the quality of education

The source of talent cultivation lies in education. Currently, there are talent gaps in some emerging fields, and some professional settings and teaching content are not closely connected with industrial development. The "Opinions" make arrangements from the following aspects.

First, higher education must improve its quality and expand its capacity. The "Opinions" propose to promote the improvement and expansion of higher education, develop new research universities, optimize the adjustment mechanism of subject and major settings in colleges and universities according to the development trends of industry and science and technology, and promote talent training and industrial development in the same direction.

Secondly, vocational education should highlight practice. The "Opinions" call for promoting the high-quality development of modern vocational education, comprehensively promoting the integrated engineering-study skilled talent training model, and supporting craftsmen and highly skilled talents from large countries to serve as intern training teachers in vocational schools so that students can be exposed to front-line technologies and craftsmanship in school.

Finally, schools and enterprises should collaborate to educate people. The "Opinions" encourage enterprises and universities to jointly cultivate talents in customized ways, emphasizing "cultivating talents in practice." At present, many places are exploring moving classrooms into workshops and workshops into campuses to promote the transformation of enterprises from "employing people" to "educating people", so as to achieve a more accurate connection between talent supply and industrial demand.

To advance this work, colleges and universities must establish a dynamic linking mechanism between major settings and industrial needs, and promptly add majors that are in urgent need and adjust majors that do not meet development needs; vocational colleges must deepen the integration of industry and education and introduce corporate technical standards into the classroom; companies must also provide positions, equipment and technical backbones to truly participate in the entire process of talent training.

Education provides talents for science and technology and industry, talents promote technological innovation, and scientific and technological progress puts forward new requirements for education and talents. Only when this cycle operates smoothly can new productivity have a sustainable source of power. At the same time, we must also see that there are obvious differences in scientific and educational resources, industrial base, and talent structures across regions. The "Opinions" have repeatedly emphasized adapting measures to local conditions, which requires all localities to explore development paths that are consistent with reality based on their own advantages in education, science and technology, and talent, and to prevent blind following trends and homogeneous layouts. All localities cannot copy the same model and avoid rushing in and duplicating construction. They must promote the formation of a pattern in which each has its own focus and complements its advantages.

Author: Bao Shujun, Director and Researcher, International Cooperation Center, National Development and Reform Commission