In an effort to improve vocational education, the Ministry of Education announced recently that it would spend 2 billion yuan (US$255 million) to update teaching facilities and establish quality curriculum at 100 vocational colleges nationwide.

The effort is part of the country's promise to invest 14 billion yuan (US$1.79 billion) into the vocational education system in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

This year, China has already spent 3 billion yuan (US$383 million) on pilot junior vocational education schools and vocational education centres at the county level bringing hope to both teachers and students who have long suffered from a lack of financial support.

As a result of poor input, most vocational schools or colleges are burdened by a lack of suitable teachers, outdated facilities and curricula and few internship opportunities.

Some schools, under the financial strain, were forced to raise their tuition fees, which kept out more impoverished students.

Currently, about 7 million students are studying in 1,300 vocational colleges, and about 20 million students are studying in 14,500 junior vocational schools.

Under the structure, graduates from junior middle schools may choose to attend junior vocational schools or senior middle school.

After graduation from senior middle school, students who want to further their education also have two choices: university or vocational colleges.

Considerations involved in making the choice include the family's financial ability and students' academic performances.

Usually, poor families tend to send their children who are not so good in studies to attend the vocational schools.

Junior vocational school students may advance to vocational colleges after passing examinations, and students at vocational colleges can enter universities after passing a set of different examinations.

Junior vocational schools and vocational colleges often offer the same courses, but their depth of learning varies. Obviously, students who graduate from the vocational colleges have better career prospects.

According to Sun Cheng, associate researcher with the China National Institute of Educational Research, the underlying reason for the skilled worker shortage is an imbalance in the educational system, which invests less in vocational education.

The Vocational Education Law requires that 20 per cent of the annual education budget should go to vocational education, but the ratio is much lower in practice.

According to statistics jointly released by the ministries of education and finance and the National Statistics Bureau, the ratio of investment in vocational education has declined from 13.4 per cent of the entire budget in 1994 to 7.1 per cent in 2004.

That ratio might be even lower in different provinces and municipalities.

For instance, in South China's Guangdong Province, which has a huge demand for skilled workers,junior vocational schools receive only 3 per cent of the total education budget, whereas secondary schools receive at 32 per cent, according to China Economic Report.

"Ideally the per-capita investment for vocational education students should be three times that for secondary school; the practice in China is just the opposite," said Cheng Fangping, an expert in vocational education at the China National Institute of Educational Research.

According to a 2001 national human resources report, workers for manufacturers in Japan have an average of 12.3 years of education. In China they have only 9.7 years.

In the sea of high-tech products, a label of "Made in Japan," "Made in South Korea" or "Made in Germany" also seems to be more attractive than the label "Made in China."

The reasons behind the difference might be multi-faceted, but one of them is simple: First-line workers in those countries are often better trained than their Chinese counterparts, and their products are considered to be of a higher quality than those made in China.

"The lack of skilled workers has affected the quality of the products made in our country," said Liu Zhanshang, director of the Ministry of Education's vocational education department.

Therefore, the current investment in the vocational education system aims to meet China's need for a large number of skilled workers during its industrialization.

A recent survey of enterprises in 44 cities by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security found that they need 14 per cent of the workforce to be skilled. At present, only 4 per cent are.

In economic hubs like the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta, the shortage of skilled worker is even more severe.

Guangdong, the most industrialized province in the country, reported that it lacked about 1 million skilled workers this year.

According to Yu Zuguang, deputy dean of the Vocational Education Research Centre under the Ministry of Education, China is still in its initial stages of industrialization, so the country is hungry for skilled workers.

The current rate of Chinese senior middle school graduates in post-secondary vocational schools is around 38 per cent. By contrast, it was about 50 per cent in Japan and South Korea, and about 70 per cent in Germany when they were in the initial stage of industrialization.

The imbalance has also led to different market response to vocational students and ordinary academic students.

Ministry of Education statistics show that an average of 95 per cent of vocational college graduates find work during recent years, whereas for university graduates, it's only 73 per cent.

Problems to be improved

Despite China's efforts to increase the budget for vocational education, some educators maintain that investment alone will not change the current disadvantaged status of vocational education in China.

According to Cheng Fangping, expert in vocational education at the China National Institute for Educational Research, it is better if those pilot vocational colleges don't fit the same stereotype.

"Education authorities should consider the local situations in satisfying the regional and national economic development requirement," Cheng said.

He also pointed out that vocational education currently overemphasizes textbook knowledge.

"A new type of teaching methodology should be established in vocational schools, one that asks skilled technical workers to conduct the instruction instead of teachers with little actual experience," Cheng said. "Also the new teaching methodology will move students from classrooms to factories or internship locations."

According to Cheng, instead of being viewed as only a part of the educational system, vocational education actually needs collaboration from the business sector, as well.

US law requires that any vocation-related enterprise consisting of more than 100 employees provide internships for students, and the company can get tax breaks for their contribution to this field, Cheng noted.

"China needs similar legislation to support its vocational education," he said. "The reality now is that most enterprises in China can't afford long-term internships and are unwilling to cultivate such relationships."

Another problem is the society isn't promising a bright future to vocational schools and students, which leads to decline in their enrolment and student quality.

According to some educators, in a society that emphasizes academic study and university educations, vocational education still suffers from a kind of discrimination.

"Unlike in some countries such as South Korea, which provide more financial support to vocational educations than to academic education, China's vocational schools enjoy far less investment than that which goes to secondary education or universities. Therefore, they are not good enough to attract students, and good students are not willing to attend those schools," said Wang Linfeng, professor at the College of Electronics and Technology in Guilin, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Also, unlike in developed countries where skilled workers can earn as much as a university professor, skilled workers in China still belong to a lower social class than white-collar workers.

Similarly, in developed countries, vocational education graduates have their own corporate ladder, which ensures them lifelong education and promotion, but in China, vocational school graduates often feel insecure in sustaining their jobs.

Gao Pingping, a junior middle school student in East China's Anhui province, summarized it this way: "Once we can enjoy the same economic profit and social status as university graduates by putting forth the same effort, we'll be willing to attend vocational schools."

(China Daily 12/14/2006 page1)