Skills training programs to get upgrades

China's vocational education system will expand its program offering by incorporating emerging fields such as the low-altitude economy, artificial intelligence, high-end equipment and urban renewal, according to a guideline issued by the Ministry of Education on Thursday.

The guideline makes provisions for institutions to dynamically adjust their academic offerings by adding new disciplines, phasing out redundant ones and upgrading existing courses to better align with industrial transformation and national strategic priorities.

Under the plan, a rapid-response mechanism will be established to introduce programs tailored to burgeoning sectors and future industries. Special attention will be given to areas facing critical talent shortages, including the low-altitude economy and AI.

At the same time, programs with weak faculty resources, poor teaching quality or low employment rates will be closed or consolidated to prevent fragmented and inefficient program layouts.

The reform outlines five key tasks: adjusting academic programs, designing integrated curricula, diversifying textbook formats, upgrading teacher competencies and building industry-education integrated training bases. The measures aim to shift vocational education from knowledge transmission to comprehensive skills development.

To ensure coordinated implementation, the ministry will involve executives from leading enterprises, high-level vocational schools and industry organizations in implementing the plan.

Provincial education departments are required to formulate program plans based on regional industrial blueprints and publish annual compatibility reports. They must also regularly release three lists of programs: those in urgent demand, those requiring upgrades and those considered outdated.

Local education-industry alliances are expected to issue guidance on talent demand forecasts and program planning.

By 2027, the ministry aims to establish a modern vocational education standards system covering programs, curricula, textbooks, teachers and training facilities, along with a replicable model. By 2035, it envisions a vocational education framework with Chinese characteristics that significantly enhances the system's capacity to serve national strategies and industrial upgrading.

According to the ministry, by the end of 2024, China had 12.29 million students in secondary vocational schools, 17.64 million in vocational colleges and 109,600 in vocational universities.

Yang Qianwen, a lecturer at the Party School of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said the cultivation of highly skilled talent is at a pivotal stage, driven by national strategy and industrial demand.

Amid the reshaping of the global manufacturing competition, advanced industries such as new energy vehicles, rail transit equipment, high-end computer numerical control machine tools and robotics have become key benchmarks of a country's industrial strength and technological competitiveness, she wrote in an article published in China Education News.

"Graduates often need a long time to adapt to job requirements, making it difficult to meet enterprises' demand for 'plug-and-play' talent," she said. "An effective model for integrating industry and education in high-skilled talent training still requires further exploration."

Yang described the new coordination mechanism — bringing together leading enterprises, top vocational schools and authoritative industry organizations — as the core of the reform.

Only when all three parties are deeply involved throughout the entire educational process — from curriculum design and training plan formulation to implementation and quality assessment — can industrial needs be embedded in talent cultivation from the outset, she said.

zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn