Vocational undergraduate students welcome the season of abundant enrollment and employment. Reporter | Undergraduate | Vocational

Originally, I embarked on my own training path and did not pursue the "extended version" of vocational colleges or the "replicated version" of regular undergraduate programs——

Vocational undergraduate enrollment and employment harvest season

Worker's Daily - China Industrial Network reporter Qu Xinyue

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Starting from the pilot program in 2020, vocational undergraduate education has gradually embarked on a unique training path with its own characteristics. This year, many universities that offer undergraduate vocational education have added new majors and expanded their enrollment scale; At the same time, the favorable employment situation reflects that vocational undergraduate education in China has good development prospects and strong vitality.

"This year, our school has been approved to add 7 undergraduate majors, increasing the number from 23 last year to 30. At the same time, the undergraduate enrollment plan has reached 6297 people, an increase of more than 1100 people from last year. It is another enrollment season," Wu Xuemin, Secretary of the Party Committee of Nanjing University of Industry and Technology, told reporters. This year, the school has set new records in both the number of undergraduate majors and the scale of undergraduate enrollment.

As the first public vocational undergraduate school in the country, Nanjing University of Industry and Technology sent away the first batch of 903 undergraduate graduates last year. This year, more than 1300 undergraduate students from the 2023 cohort graduated successfully. "They have shown a high level of technical skills, comprehensive quality, high employment quality, and high social recognition as a whole, which has set a good start for the steady development of vocational undergraduate education and produced a good demonstration effect," said Wu Xuemin.

In addition to Nanjing University of Industry and Technology, many universities that offer undergraduate level vocational education have added new majors this year, expanding their enrollment scale. This also reflects the good development prospects and strong vitality of vocational undergraduate education in China.

Hot enrollment consultation hotline

"This year, we have set up a total of four enrollment consultation telephones, receiving over 300 calls every day, significantly more than 100 in previous years. Most of them are candidates with clear intentions to apply." He Beizhan, Director of the Enrollment Office of Xi'an Automotive Vocational University, is currently busy with enrollment work in various provinces. "The situation I have learned is that in some provinces, the number of applicants has exceeded the enrollment plan, and the number of candidates who have listed our school as a first choice candidate has also increased."

As the school sent away the first batch of graduates who obtained undergraduate vocational education graduation certificates and bachelor's degree certificates in June this year, He Beizhan clearly felt that candidates and parents had a significant improvement in their understanding of vocational undergraduate education. "In consultations, few people would question whether the word 'profession' in the school name is actually undergraduate, and more importantly, they are concerned about which majors have good employment prospects."

The reporter found that many vocational undergraduate schools have seen significant growth in their enrollment plans this year. While expanding its undergraduate enrollment scale, Hebei Petroleum Vocational and Technical University has also expanded its enrollment scope from 22 provinces last year to 27. This year, Shenzhen Vocational and Technical University, which has just been upgraded to the first public vocational undergraduate university in Guangdong, has also attracted attention for its first enrollment. This time, the school has established a total of 6 vocational undergraduate majors and plans to enroll 200 undergraduate students.

In addition to increasing enrollment plans, many vocational colleges also add undergraduate majors based on industry development and their own professional advantages.

Nanjing Vocational and Technical University of Industry has been recruiting undergraduate students since 2020, and since then, new undergraduate majors have been approved every year. In the first three years, a total of 23 undergraduate majors have been approved. On this basis, the school has been approved to equip 7 undergraduate majors, including intelligent technology, electrical engineering, and automation, this year.

This year, Xi'an Automotive Vocational University has added three new undergraduate majors: Integrated Circuit Engineering Technology, Intelligent Connected Vehicle Engineering Technology, and Industrial Design. "The automotive industry is developing towards electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing, and these majors are in line with the industry's development trend," said Gao Qi, Director of the School Enterprise Cooperation Office of Xi'an Automotive Vocational University.

Smooth exports lead to strong enrollment

"This year, more than 1300 undergraduate students from the class of 2023 have successfully graduated from the school. As of the end of June, the implementation rate of their graduation destinations is nearly ten percentage points higher than the average of universities in Jiangsu Province." Wu Xuemin told reporters that the employment situation of this year's vocational undergraduate graduates is good, and he is even more pleased that "these graduates are willing to actively work in physical enterprises, actively participate in 'Made in China', and are also favored by key enterprises in the industry.".

According to Wu Xuemin, the vocational undergraduate graduates of the school not only go to large state-owned enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, but also work in some specialized and innovative enterprises in the province. The employment positions mainly include R&D engineers, on-site engineers, assistant engineers, and quality inspection engineers in manufacturing enterprises, responsible for the design, manufacturing, development, and debugging of various high-end equipment or the development and testing of system software. The average starting annual salary for graduates is around 90000 yuan, with some graduates earning over 160000 yuan per year.

Why are these vocational undergraduate graduates favored by employers? In Wu Xuemin's view, focusing on the industry layout is one of the keys. "Every new major needs to do industry research in advance. At present, we have built a professional cluster architecture with equipment technology and industrial Internet technology as the backbone around the Yangtze River Delta equipment manufacturing industry chain, so that all majors can closely connect with the regional advanced manufacturing industry and modern service industry.".

Advanced technology is on the front line of enterprises. How can the latest technology directly enter the classroom and cultivate students' ability to solve complex problems on the production line? "Enterprises are deeply involved in the entire process of talent cultivation, including textbook development, competition innovation, and experimental training, and select the best from the best every year, so that some internship students can directly find employment." Wu Xuemin said that currently, the school has partnered with leading companies in the industry such as Huawei, Jingdiao, and Siemens to jointly carry out talent cultivation, achieving the integration of teaching content with high-level vocational standards, teaching process with complex workflow, and academic certificates with intermediate and advanced vocational skill level certificates.

Embarking on one's own training path for vocational undergraduate education

At Xi'an Automotive Vocational University, students in each major will experience a 2-3 week suspension training week every semester. During this period, students did not follow the traditional schedule of scheduled classes, but instead set aside a whole period of time for them to fully study and solve some of the problems they may encounter on the front line of the enterprise.

Zuo Hao, Director of the Academic Affairs Office of Xi'an Automotive Vocational University, told reporters that practical teaching methods such as "suspension of classes and practical training weeks" account for more than 50% of the total teaching hours of vocational undergraduate programs. In Zuo Hao's view, emphasizing the cultivation of students' professional abilities and spirit, and aligning talent development plans with the job requirements of enterprises are the distinctive advantages of vocational undergraduate programs compared to ordinary undergraduate programs. "Vocational undergraduate schools focus more on hiring professionals and industry experts with practical work experience as teachers, emphasizing the 'dual teacher' model," said Zuo Hao.

Is vocational undergraduate education an addition of one year of study time and some undergraduate courses on the basis of vocational education? Is it just to make some adjustments to the training mode of ordinary undergraduate education based on the so-called vocational education characteristics? In the early stages of exploring vocational undergraduate education, there are still many doubts and discussions in the industry.

Zuo Hao stated that when formulating talent training programs, schools have two reference standards: one is the national standard for teaching quality issued by the Ministry of Education, and the other is the national vocational skills standard issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. "These two standards serve as the reference frame and measurement scale for school education and talent cultivation, and are also one of the differences between vocational undergraduate programs and ordinary undergraduate programs and vocational colleges."

"Undergraduate vocational education is neither an 'extended version' of vocational education, nor a 'replicated version' of ordinary undergraduate education." Wu Xuemin believes that the logical starting point of vocational education talent cultivation is the various ability requirements required for vocational positions. Upgrading from the vocational level to the undergraduate level will further enhance the integration and complexity of the technical fields involved. "Compared with vocational education, undergraduate vocational education should enable students to have a deeper theoretical foundation, more complex professional abilities, and more solid accumulation of technical skills, making it possible to master high-end technical skills and better adapt to the needs of industrial transformation and upgrading. Compared with ordinary undergraduate education, vocational undergraduate education should also adhere to the application orientation, strengthen the cultivation of students' innovation ability and innovation literacy, and improve their ability to solve practical problems." The ability level of complex problems.