Focus Interview | Gold Medal Craftsmen from Vocational Education Institutions

Made in China and Created in China cannot be without the support of skilled craftsmen. The second National Skills Competition with the theme of "Skills for Success, Skills for the Country" has been held in Tianjin these days. More than 4000 contestants from 36 delegations across the country participated in 109 competition events. This is a comprehensive national vocational skills competition with the highest standards, the most competitive projects, the largest scale of participation, the highest skill level, and the widest range of influence held since the establishment of the People's Republic of China. What are the superb skills of the contestants and what kind of trials have they gone through? Today, let's take a look at the stories of three contestants.

Wang Hao is a welding player from the Sichuan representative team and also the champion of the welding project in the first National Skills Competition. This time he is participating in a welding project, and there is a high demand to win the championship. Wang Hao is a senior welding technician in a subsidiary of China 19th Metallurgical Group. Despite his ease today, his first experience with welding 7 years ago left him suffering greatly.

Wang Hao, an employee of China 19th Metallurgical Group Co., Ltd.: After waking up, I found that my eyes couldn't open, and I kept shedding tears when I closed them. I wonder if I can't learn welding.

Surprisingly, four years later, Wang Hao won the national championship in one fell swoop. How did he actually make a comeback along the way? In 2016, Wang Hao learned that attending a technical college could provide practical skills, employment opportunities, and a range of good policies. Therefore, he decided to enter Panzhihua Technical College to study welding. This college was founded by China 19th Metallurgical Group and adopts a school enterprise joint education model. After graduation, students have the opportunity to work in the group.

Zhai Jun, Director of the Recruitment Department of Panzhihua Technician College: While reducing tuition and miscellaneous fees for students, we also provide them with an annual living allowance of 3000 yuan per student, which solves the worries of students like Wang Hao who continue to study high-quality education.

Since 2016, Sichuan has invested nearly 2.5 billion yuan in vocational education, providing opportunities for young people like Wang Hao to continue their education and learn skills, while also opening up channels from schools to enterprises.

Liu Xiaobo, Deputy Director of the Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Sichuan Province: Some regions in the province have also introduced preferential policies such as free accommodation fees. Overall, ordinary students can enjoy an annual subsidy of four to five thousand yuan, while outstanding students can enjoy a reward and subsidy of around ten thousand yuan. At the same time, in order to encourage students from technical colleges to participate in national skills competitions, cities such as Chengdu have also introduced a maximum reward of one hundred thousand yuan for gold medal athletes in national and municipal competitions.

In recent years, Panzhihua Technician College has trained multiple world championship champions. Seeing them, Wang Hao has also been determined to pursue the path of skill success and skill service to the country.

Wang Hao, an employee of China 19th Metallurgical Group Co., Ltd.: I also really want to become someone who can stand on the world stage and bring glory to the country. Then I set a small goal for myself: I want to join the training team.

However, at first, Wang Hao's coach was not optimistic about him. But Wang Hao refused to accept defeat, and he began to study hard and practice hard. The key to training is to form muscle memory through extensive practice, for which he has to practice for at least 12 hours every day. Observing the welding details, recording the operation essentials, and repeatedly strengthening the practice, the scars on his left arm are gradually growing marks. In order to have abundant physical strength, he has to run 2 kilometers and do 100 push ups every morning for 6 years. One year later, Wang Hao participated in the 2019 Bayu Craftsman Cup competition and won the championship with one go.

Wang Hao, an employee of China 19th Metallurgical Group Co., Ltd.: I only found out after the competition that I was scalded. After returning from the competition, I set another goal for myself: to become a national technical expert.

The National Technical Expert is an important award for national level technical talents, selected every 2 years, and 100 people are commended in each selection. In order to become a national technical expert, Wang Hao practiced even harder. Pressure vessel welding is the most challenging project in the competition, requiring not only 33 welds to pass the pressure test without leakage, but also to control the error of the welds within 2 millimeters.

In December 2020, Wang Hao won the first place in the welding project of the first National Skills Competition. In the second year, he was awarded the title of National Technical Expert as he had hoped. Looking back on the journey he has taken, Wang Hao said that every step cannot be separated from the cultivation of the country. According to statistics, cultivating a top welding talent like Wang Hao has cost nearly 2 million yuan in material consumption alone in the past 6 years.

Now, Wang Hao has taken up his job and become a senior welding technician. He has participated in the construction of six major projects, realizing his desire to serve the country with his skills. There are still many outstanding graduates like Wang Hao.

In recent years, the implementation rate of employment destinations for graduates from technical colleges in Sichuan Province has remained around 98%, and some graduates from advantageous majors are in short supply, providing tens of thousands of skilled talents for economic and social development.

Wang Xiaojun, Deputy Director of the Vocational Capacity Building Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security: Skilled talents are an important force supporting China's manufacturing and creation. High skilled talents are the core backbone of the skilled talent team. Strengthening the construction of the high skilled talent team is of great significance for improving core competitiveness and enhancing national scientific and technological innovation capabilities. Strengthening the construction of the basic talent team is a very important task in promoting high-quality development.

Like Wang Hao, there is also a 22-year-old young man named Zhang Xu who yearns for skills to succeed and serve the country. He is a skilled worker at the Aerospace Materials and Technology Research Institute, representing Tianjin in the competition for CNC lathe projects. CNC lathe is a high-precision and high-efficiency automated machine tool.

Coach Huang Lianbao from the Tianjin region of the second National Skills Competition CNC Turning Competition: In daily work, CNC turning a product usually requires multiple people to complete it together, and the competition has a very comprehensive assessment of the contestants, including completing all aspects such as drawing recognition, drawing, programming, process formulation, machining debugging, inspection, assembly, etc. The comprehensive ability requirements for the contestants are very high.

In order to prepare for the competition, Zhang Xu and the coach have to stay in front of the CNC lathe for at least 10-12 hours every day. Before participating in the competition, Zhang Xu had already been working for two years, participating in the production of Long March 5 and Long March 7 carrier rocket bodies.

Zhang Xu, a contestant from the CNC national competition, said: At that time, I was deeply impressed by the working atmosphere in the entire workshop. Because our product is particularly important for aerospace, it has a zero scrap rate and high cost.

Zero scrap rate not only means having excellent skills, but also the ability to find solutions to problems. Once Zhang Xu encountered a special machining material, and as soon as his cutting tool came into contact, the tip of the tool would collapse. Everyone didn't know how to solve this problem.

Zhang Xu, a participant in the CNC national competition, said, "I will take a small file and gently grind the tip of the knife to make it blunt. Then, when processing the material, it can withstand the strength of the material. This incident has also opened up my mind.".

After two years of professional training and six months of pre competition training, Zhang Xu finally made it to the national finals. He said that he is not fighting alone, behind him, it is the school that educates him, the workplace that cultivates him, and the coach who teaches by example.

In order to promote the cultivation of high-quality talents, China has introduced many policy measures, such as the new vocational skill level system for skilled talents introduced by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, which extends the skill level from "level five" to "level eight". The Opinion on Strengthening the Construction of High skilled Talents in the New Era, released by the government last year, proposed that by the end of the 14th Five Year Plan period, the proportion of skilled talents in employment should reach over 30%, and the proportion of high skilled talents in skilled talents should reach one-third. In the future, the value of skilled workers will inevitably increase.

Wang Xiaojun, Deputy Director of the Vocational Capacity Building Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security: These policies, systems, laws, and regulations play a huge role in promoting the high-quality development of vocational education and training. At present, various regions are establishing and improving policies for high skilled talents, increasing organizational and implementation efforts, and promoting the development of skilled talent teams in various aspects such as training, evaluation, utilization, and motivation, in order to promote the overall development of skilled talent work.

Compared to Wang Hao and Zhang Xu, 18-year-old Henan delegation athlete Lu Jingyi's competition events are much quieter. The project she participated in was chemistry laboratory technology, and the competition had two contents: first, synthesis of designated compounds; The second is to analyze the chemical composition of the sample. Lu Jingyi's teacher Jiang Yuhe won the gold medal in this event at last year's World Skills Competition special event. Today, she led her apprentices to launch an attack on this project, and for this, they have been preparing for the competition.

In 2020, 15-year-old Lu Jingyi entered Henan Chemical Technician College to study environmental protection and testing. This major not only requires strong hands-on ability, but also a certain foundation in chemistry and mathematics, which is precisely her weakness.

Lu Jingyi, a student of the Chemical Engineering Preparatory Technician Class at the School of Chemical Engineering, Henan University of Chemical Technology, said: "I heard from my classmates that this major is difficult to learn, and at that time, I was also easily swayed. I wanted to drop out with friends.".

Under the persuasion of her parents, Lu Jingyi stayed, and her later experiences also proved that this choice was correct. Henan Chemical Technician College is a national key technical school that cultivates junior, intermediate, and senior skilled talents.

Wang Zhi, Dean of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Henan Chemical Technician College: The college actively responds to the policy of "everyone holds a certificate and skills Henan" in Henan Province, and has successively carried out order based training and package based training for enterprises and society, deepening school enterprise cooperation and industry education integration.

According to the plan of "Everyone Holds a Certificate, Skilled Henan", by 2025, the total number of certified personnel in the province will reach 30 million, accounting for more than 60% of the workforce. We strive to achieve certified employment for all skilled workers in the province and basically build a national skilled talent highland. Lu Jingyi is a participant in this plan. In order to master her skills, she often practices until 12 o'clock at night or even 1 o'clock in the morning. Finally, she won two championships in this year's provincial and municipal competitions, and also qualified to participate in this year's national skills competition.

Yang Zhenli, President of Henan Institute of Chemical Technology: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for the first time compares high skilled talents and great country craftsmen with strategic scientists and outstanding engineers, becoming a national strategic talent force, highlighting the current demand for high skilled talents in society and the importance of high skilled talents and great country craftsmen.

Although the final result of the competition has not yet been released as of the time of publication, we have seen the dreams and struggles of this generation of young people in Wang Hao, Zhang Xu, and Lu Jingyi. In this competition, there are over 4000 contestants like them who hope to learn and improve their skills through the competition. They are even more eager to learn and achieve success as soon as possible, and use their skills to serve their country.

Three hundred and sixty lines, each line produces a champion. These players standing on the field can be said to have two brushes. From them, we can not only see the spirit of craftsmanship passed down through generations, but also the innovative vitality bestowed by the times. It is the perseverance, hard work, inheritance, and innovation day after day that have created these highly skilled technical experts. On their path to success, individual efforts cannot be separated from policy support, school and unit training. While encouraging young people to take the path of skill development and serving their country, we also hope that all parties can provide more paths for young people who aspire to this, helping more skilled talents stand out.

Editor | Ning Ke, Wang Xiaopei

Camera | Lv Shaobo and Zhou Yujin

Editing | Zhao Peng