Chinese vocational education is contributing a beautiful national model to the world

This is a powerful professional skills "super competition" - the second National Skills Competition selects over 4000 skilled players from hundreds of thousands of players, representing the highest level of skill competition in related projects in China. They compete and showcase their skills in 109 events.

This is a comprehensive display of the contemporary vocational education style in China - the new profession has broadened the path of skill development, vocational education resonates with the development of the real economy, and the cultivation of skilled talents has become more three-dimensional... China's vocational education is contributing a beautiful national model to the world.

Expanding Skills to Achieve Talents in New Occupations

Staring at the screen, tapping the keyboard with both hands... In the artificial intelligence training event of the competition, player Yao Juwen from Xinjiang is focused on "training" the data just collected. For Yao Juwen, such a scene is so familiar that he has been preparing for this game for several months.

To Yao Juwen's right is a miniature simulated road scene. The standing traffic lights, standing dummies, and landscape trees are all the "test questions" set for Yao Juwen in this competition. "The more questions there are, the more excited Yao Juwen becomes. 'I have practiced countless times, and the higher the difficulty, the more I can detect that my basic skills are not solid enough.'"

Artificial intelligence training athlete Yao Juwen is analyzing the collected data. Photo by Sun Yifei, a journalist from People's Daily Online

The competition that Yao Juwen participated in is one of the new professional events added to this competition. As the assistant judge of this competition, Fu Shaohua is happy to share this new professional competition with visitors: "Our contestants need to extract effective data from massive amounts of data for model training, so that the model can achieve a certain accuracy. With the development of society, artificial intelligence technology can be used in various industries, such as airport facial recognition, and speech recognition in some applications. The development of this technology has also given birth to the new profession of artificial intelligence trainers - using machines to complete tasks that human intelligence can only complete."

More than ten meters away from the artificial intelligence training event, the competition is centered around the highly popular blockchain application operations in the past two years.

"This is also our first time participating in this competition, with a total of 51 participants, mainly assessing their application of basic knowledge of blockchain. Regarding this new technology, the presiding judge of the blockchain application operation competition, Li Ming, has a deeper understanding." We need to cultivate more talents in application operation, which not only promotes industrial development but also builds a healthy ecosystem for the entire blockchain. "

The establishment of new competitions is a testament to the demand for new talents in various industries. Compared with the first competition, 20 new professional and digital technology skills events have been added to the selected projects of this competition, such as all media operation, Internet marketing, etc. These events are of great significance to enhance the social identity of new professional practitioners and promote employment and entrepreneurship.

Vocational education empowers the development of the real economy

The clock pointer moved forward, and there were less than 10 days left before the competition. At the Tianjin Welding Training Base, Wang Haopeng, a student of Tianjin Mechanical and Electrical Vocational and Technical College, was immersed in the interplay of lightning and stone fire, just to seize the last time before the competition and sprint with all her might. "I will train hard, face the competition calmly, strive for good results, bring glory to Tianjin, and contribute to the development of the real economy."

Wang Haopeng, who had just participated in the competition, was very satisfied with his performance. Photo by Sun Yifei, a journalist from People's Daily Online

Welding technology is the most commonly used material forming and processing technology in modern manufacturing, playing a crucial role in the industry. Welding emphasizes technical and aesthetic qualities, testing the skill level and craftsmanship spirit of the players. Since joining the Tianjin training team, Wang Haopeng has been training for more than ten hours every day, baking every drop of sweat on his body through welding seams, sparks splattering and burning every small hole in his work clothes, and smoke and dust swirling and imprinting every mark on his face. This is not only a witness to Wang Haopeng's skill progress, but also a microcosm of China's vocational education empowering the development of the real economy.

The latest data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security shows that the total number of skilled talents in China has exceeded 200 million, accounting for more than 26% of the total employed population; There are over 60 million highly skilled talents. Through quality improvement and deep integration of industry and education, China has built the world's largest and high-quality vocational education system, providing strong support for promoting economic and social development and enhancing national competitiveness.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed the goal of "coordinating innovation in vocational education, higher education, and continuing education, promoting the integration of vocational education, industry and education, and science and education, and optimizing the positioning of vocational education types." This put forward new and higher requirements in the service of vocational education to the real economy, and also pointed out the direction for building China's vocational education system.

Mr. Pan Zhongwang, who arrived from Chongqing Urban Construction Senior Technical School, observed the competition these days and wanted to bring his feelings back to the school: "This competition is grand, and there are many aspects worth learning from. For example, the competition projects and practical operations are very close, and the school can connect with mainstream technology and promote education through competition. At the same time, many enterprises have participated, indicating that vocational education is better serving the real economy."

Stereoscopic cultivation of skilled talents

Xu Haojie, who participated in the CNC lathe project, is currently employed at the China Academy of Space Technology and actively participates in the construction of the aerospace industry as an "astronaut";

Zhou Yuanyuan, who participated in the oil drilling technology project, worked as a 90s deepwater drilling platform driller and participated in the development of the Lingshui 17-2 gas field, ensuring the smooth progress of the project;

Zhang Ruiqiang, who participated in the woodworking project, participated in multiple national key engineering projects such as the 2019 Tiananmen Square renovation project and the 2023 diplomatic gift Zhonghe Hall model production project

On the field, students are polishing parts, writing vivid annotations for the integration of engineering and learning in vocational education in China. Photo by Sun Yifei, a journalist from People's Daily Online

These contestants are not only diligent skilled talents, but also craftsmen with unique craftsmanship, known as "great country's heavy weapons". Behind a group of talented individuals, it is inseparable from a comprehensive system of skilled talent cultivation.

"We must attach great importance to the promotion of school enterprise cooperation and the integration of engineering and learning. Promoting the integration of engineering and learning is an objective requirement for serving national strategies and accelerating the cultivation of high-quality skilled talents required for economic and social development. I think it is important to recognize that the real economy, especially the manufacturing industry, requires a large number of workers, technical workers among workers, and high-quality and high skilled talents among technical workers. Promoting the integration of engineering and learning follows the training laws of skilled talents, is an innovative exploration of the training mode of skilled talents, and is an inevitable choice for serving the needs of economic and social development." Tang Tao, former member of the Party Group and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at the Technical Education Forum held during this competition.

One is to stand tall, two is to tie firmly, and three is to walk steadily. Promoting the integration of engineering and education is the main way to strengthen employment orientation and highlight the characteristics of vocational education. In Tang Tao's view, the best training model is to learn while working, work while learning, and continue to strengthen the cultivation of employment skills for students through the integration of work and learning processes. Ultimately, this will cultivate skilled labor talents and great country craftsmen who are both skilled and skilled in both work and learning.

Actively carrying out the training of teachers in vocational colleges with multiple levels of undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees is also a catalyst and accelerator for building a master of craftsmanship.

Based on teaching practice, Zhang Jingang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Tianjin Vocational and Technical Normal University, has a deep understanding of this: "Our vocational and technical normal university is continuously deepening the training of vocational teachers, especially the reform and construction of the integrated teacher training system of engineering and learning. On the basis of the dual teacher and integrated doctoral program training, the university cooperates with the national implementation of the action to improve the academic qualifications of vocational school teachers, actively carries out targeted training for professional degree graduate students of in-service vocational school teachers, and continuously improves the academic level and educational and teaching ability of vocational school teachers."