Chao News:

I've noticed that there have been some recent reforms in the field of vocational education, such as the construction of municipal industry-education alliances and actions to promote industry-education integration. Are there any specific plans for the future of vocational education? Thank you.

Wu Yan:

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to vocational education. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress made it clear that we should promote collaborative innovation in vocational education, higher education, and continuing education. It emphasized the importance of promote integration between vocational education and general education, between industry and education and between science and education, thus positioning vocational education as a distinct category within the educational system. It pointed out the direction for vocational education reform in the future. At the end of last year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued a guideline to deepen the reform of a modern vocational education system. The guideline made it clear that at present and for some time to come, vocational education reform is primarily about developing a modern vocational education system. Our main tasks can be summarized as "one priority, two major respects and five focuses."

"One priority" means the MOE and relevant provinces will jointly explore new development models of modern vocational education that suit specific provinces. Provincial-level regions will be encouraged to foster their own development strategies in line with major national strategies and local industrial development requirements, and establish modern vocational education systems that conform to local conditions. By doing so, they will foster an enabling mechanism and environment for vocational education development.

As for the two major aspects, the first is to focus on regions. Based on industrial parks, we will integrate high-quality resources, promote various entities' deep participation into the operation of vocational schools, and foster a city-wide industry-education integration system featuring talent training, scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship, and facilitating high-quality industrial economic growth. This means making vocational education reforms at the city level. The second is to focus on industries. As the chain heads, some enterprises will lead the integration of the upstream and downstream resources and work with schools and scientific and research institutions to build a number of cross-regional industry-education integration communities featuring complementary advantages, resource sharing, joint cultivation, collaborative innovation, and integrated development.

The five focuses of the vocational education are as follows. The first is to improve the key school-running capabilities of vocational schools, optimize the setting of majors centering on the development of key regional industries, and develop core courses, core textbooks, core practice projects, and a core teacher team for vocational education. New methods, technologies, and processes will be introduced in a timely manner into education and teaching, and digital empowerment will be leveraged to constantly improve the ability to cultivate talents and quality of the talents. The second step is to better develop a teacher team, establish a contingent of teachers strong in both theory and practice, constantly improve the teacher cultivation and training system, and open up the two-way flow channels of school and enterprise personnel, building a contingent of teachers strong in both theory and practice and in line with the development of vocational education. The third step is to construct an industry-education integration practice center. We will align with the forefront of industrial development and establish a number of open regional industry-education integration practice centers that combine teaching, social training, real production, and technical service functions. The centers will serve students in internship and practice training and provide scenes for enterprise staff training, technique transformation, and technological research and development. The fourth is to expand the channels for students' growth and development, further integrate the vocational and general education, and promote vocational education at different levels, thereby developing a vocational education system characterized by vertical penetration and horizontal integration. Fifth, mechanisms for international vocational education exchanges and cooperation should be innovated, and "bringing in" and "going global" be coordinated, which indicates bringing in high-quality overseas vocational education resources while encouraging those involved in domestic vocational education to partake in overseas exchanges and cooperation. A number of projects, such as Luban Workshops and Silk Road Schools, have exerted important influence in the countries along the Belt and Road. We should deploy such good projects in more Belt and Road countries and strive to develop vocational education standards, teaching resources, and teaching equipment with international influence so as to better serve the internationalization of Chinese enterprises. At the same time, this will also cultivate a large number of high-quality and skilled technical talents for the countries along the Belt and Road and improve the quality of vocational education and talent training in these countries. Thank you.