With its integration into the world economy, China is beginning to
see vocational education as important to maintaining fast economic
growth and social stability.
A
three-day national exhibition on vocational education formally
opened in Changchun on July 26, hosting hundreds of vocational
schools throughout China.
"We hope the exhibition can improve Chinese people's understanding
and awareness of vocational education," said an official with the
Ministry of Education (MOE).
"More importantly, we hope the exhibition will promote the future
development of vocational education in China," he added.
Yao Wu, vice-president of Digital China, a leading Chinese
high-tech company, said he had just watched a computer skills
competition held for vocational school students and was deeply
impressed.
"I
think I will pay more attention to vocational school graduates when
my company needs to recruit new employees," said Yao. "We need
different people for different jobs and I believe vocational
education will provide companies with more choices in selecting
qualified staff."
Statistics from the MOE showed that within the last two decades,
about 50 million Chinese have graduated from vocational
schools.
"They are now the major force in China's industrial and service
sectors," said an official.
According to the MOE, recent years have seen the rapid development
of China's vocational education. Statistics show that the number of
students in China's vocational schools increased fourfold from 2.27
million in 1980 to 11.64 million in 2001 and the number at higher
vocational institutes rose from 60,000 in 1985 to 720,000 in
2001.
However, with the deepening of China's economic reforms and
industrial restructuring, vocational education faced new
challenges, said Wang Zhan, Vice-Minister of Education.
In
recent years, Chinese vocational schools have established more than
200 new training programs to meet the demands of the market. A 2001
survey showed that 78.4 percent of vocational school students found
jobs after graduation and 10 percent chose to continue their
studies.
Vocational education was a key to upgrading China's human resources
and to increase employment making it crucial to economic growth and
social development, said Wang.
(Xinhua News
Agency July 27, 2002)