Vocational schools cast off the shadow of stigma

Hotel chefs

Hou Decheng, a senior teacher at Beijing Business School, has taught Western-style cooking in the city's vocational schools for 36 years.

Dismissing the deep-rooted stigma against vocational school students, Hou said graduates of such institutions have become highly successful and are not less talented than university graduates.

Some of his students have become head chefs at five-star hotels in Beijing, earning as much as 40,000 yuan per month, while others work at leading hotels in Hong Kong, Macao, Australia and the United States, he said.

However, Hou admits that most of his students cannot earn such high salaries. "The key factor preventing parents sending their offspring to vocational schools is that they are still underpaid (in the workforce) and are not well respected in society," he said.

Getting to the top in any profession is not easy, and becoming a successful chef requires extensive training and dedication, which most people cannot take, he added.

Jia Sulan, principal of Tianjin Zhonghua Secondary Vocational School, said some vocational school students do not receive enough attention from their teachers in middle school because their scores are not good enough.

After they go to vocational schools and learn a subject the students are truly passionate about, they finally get the opportunity to excel and gain confidence in themselves, she said, adding that receiving encouragement is important for a student's development.

Vocational schools do not assess students according to their exam scores, and as the whole mentality of schooling has changed, these students are no longer considered to have failed, she said.

In the 1980s, vocational schools were favored by students and parents, as graduates from these institutions could earn higher salaries than those from regular schools, Jia said. However, since the late 1990s and early 2000s, the popularity of vocational schools has gradually fallen, she added.

Since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress in 2012, the central authorities have attached great importance to promoting vocational education, and have allocated more resources and funds to vocational schools, Jia said.

The newly revised Vocational Education Law, which took effect in May, is expected to improve the recognition for and status of vocational education by stressing that it is equally as important as regular education, Jia said.

The law also emphasizes that different levels of vocational education should be further integrated, so that students who want to pursue higher degrees are eligible to do so.

Vocational school graduates should also enjoy the same opportunity to access higher levels of education, employment and career development as regular school graduates, the law states.

Si Huabeijiao, 21, a student majoring in photovoltaics at Tianjin Light Industry Vocational Technical College, said she has always regretted failing to achieve a high score in the national college entrance exam, or gaokao.

She has worked extra hard at the college and has taken part in vocational skills competitions. Si and her team recently won the gold medal at the World Vocational College Skills Competition in Tianjin.

She said she still wants to be admitted to a regular college, and to even pursue a postgraduate degree.

Jia said the law has broken the glass ceiling of vocational school students obtaining bachelor's and higher degrees, so they will no longer be discriminated against in the job market due to their academic background.

"The law really ensures that vocational school students have brighter prospects, whether they want to find a job or pursue a higher degree. I am confident that within a couple of years, the attractions of vocational education will improve greatly," she added.