Which new profession is on fire, can vocational schools quickly connect with "new" majors?
To accurately match the talent gap, vocational colleges still need to find accurate coordinates——
[New business forms and new occupations are "thirst", how to break the situation in talent training? ①] New occupations are coming, and vocational school talent training cannot keep up
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The booming new business format presses the "fast forward button" of the development of my country's digital economy to inject new momentum into the economy.
The boom of new business formats has given birth to a number of new occupations. Since last year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments have successively released 38 new occupations, opening up more employment space for workers.
However, in response to the booming development of industries, there is a huge talent gap in many emerging industries.
Facing the proposition of talent training brought by new business types and occupations, how do vocational colleges, which are the cradle of skilled talent training, answer?
Can growth-oriented companies strengthen their own hematopoietic capabilities and invest more in talent training?
How should vocational training respond to achieve close connection between talent training and social needs?
Can the human resources department, labor union, etc. accelerate the improvement of the vocational education and training system, provide relevant policies and financial support, and provide a broader space for the future development of new occupations?
Starting today, this edition will launch a series of reports "New Business Forms and New Occupations "Thirst", How to Break the Situation in Talent Training?"
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New formats and new professions call for new vocational education.
However, vocational school talent training has not kept up with the pace of market demand.
Many vocational schools have added new majors one after another, but the newly added majors are too concentrated; the students' learning is obviously lagging behind the company's first-line demand; the level of teachers cannot keep up with the pace of industrial upgrading, and problems such as insufficient incentive mechanisms have become prominent.
To accurately bridge the gap of new professional talents, vocational colleges still need to find the coordinates before they can complete the professional upgrade and digital transformation.
On September 23, a group of 2019 freshmen were listening in a class of Mechatronics (Intelligent Manufacturing) at the Sino-German College of Shenyang Vocational and Technical College.
In addition to the basic knowledge of traditional mechatronics, they will also learn the relevant knowledge of industrial data management.
As high-skilled talents working in smart factories in the future, companies do not even have an accurate description of their positions.
They are skilled talents cultivated by vocational schools in response to career changes.
With the widespread use of artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, my country's economic development has ushered in new growth points.
The demand for practitioners in related fields has increased significantly, and a number of new occupations have been created.
Lu Xin, president of the Chinese Vocational and Technical Education Association and former vice minister of the Ministry of Education, said that in the next five years, there will be a shortage of more than 90 million talents in 38 new professions.
As one of the main providers of skilled talents, how should vocational schools deal with the gap?
Professional "new" is not that simple
"The notice to recruit two big data engineering technicians was hung up for half a year, but no suitable candidates were found." Li Weizhe, general manager of the human resources department of a technology company in Shenyang, said that the company wanted to recruit fresh graduates of data science and big data technology to apply for the job. Most of my majors are not right, and I finally met a few professional counterparts. As a result, I couldn't even explain the basic technology of the industry during the interview, let alone have practical experience.
In fact, not many schools have opened this major in recent years.
In February 2016, the Ministry of Education newly approved the undergraduate major.
As of last year, there were 619 general undergraduate colleges and universities setting up this major, accounting for 49.7% of the total.
"Which major is popular in the market, the school will be swarming up which major, which can meet the large demand of the industry in the short term, but in the long run, the supply will exceed demand. It can be seen from the business management and computer majors." Said professional lecturer Deng Anzhi.
In 2019, among the newly-added undergraduate registration majors of the Ministry of Education, the top five majors that connect with artificial intelligence and big data positions accounted for 544, accounting for 32.5% of the total.
He said that some colleges and universities disregarded the conditions for running schools and did not study the needs of local industry development, blindly introducing new ones, which eventually led to the abolition of new majors.
The Ministry of Education announced the abolition of 367 majors in 2019, including many new professions related to artificial intelligence, big data management and application, and intelligent manufacturing engineering.
“Vocational schools need to cultivate talents through three processes: first attracting high-quality students, school training, and talents entering the industry and leaving behind. The modern service industry where some new occupations are located is not attractive enough to prevent vocational schools from recruiting high-quality students. This is also a disguised form. Forcing schools to get together with majors related to high-tech industries."
"Online delivery personnel, health care workers, and prefabricated construction workers sound like'tall'. To put it bluntly, they are couriers, babysitters, and construction workers. If you work hard to train a child, let them do this?" During the interview, the parents Zhang Fei said.
Her son entered a computer major in a vocational school this year.
Faced with many new majors, she still chose the "traditional veteran" major.
There are many parents like Zhang Fei.
New occupations are new types of jobs, employment and entrepreneurship under the background of digitization, networking, and intelligence, which are mainly concentrated in the two fields of emerging industries and modern service industries.
Among them, due to factors such as industry income and room for improvement, many modern service industry-related majors cannot attract high-quality students.
Lagged behind demand is the pain point of talent training
"The most concentrated problem of talent training in vocational schools is that the courses and practices that students learn in the school lag significantly behind the real enterprise first-line needs." Li Weizhe said.
During the interview, he found that the development of the big data industry is changing with each passing day, but the teaching materials used in vocational schools are usually updated slowly.
Even vocational school teachers who are engaged in scientific research projects are often not from the front line of emerging industries, and have less access to industry information. Even if they are obtained, they are rarely written into teaching materials.
"Students operate at the school or the old equipment that was eliminated by the enterprise five or six years ago." Li Weizhe said that every year he recruits several graduates from vocational schools, and without exception, he must re-train his practical ability after he comes.
He also expressed his understanding of this. It is unrealistic to require ordinary vocational schools to purchase large-scale machinery and equipment because of the high cost of daily maintenance and software upgrades.
Deng Anzhi’s biggest feeling is that the level of teachers in vocational schools is limited, not only because of the lack of internal incentives for existing teachers, but also the problem that industry elites cannot attract.
Deng Anzhi told reporters that many vocational schools do not assess whether the content taught is advanced or close to the industry, nor whether the students taught are in demand.
Moreover, teachers with strong scientific research and teaching abilities are not paid much higher than ordinary teachers, so the teaching content of many teachers remains unchanged.
In addition, the salary package of vocational schools is also difficult to attract top highly skilled talents in the industry.
The artisans from the big countries invited by Deng Anzhi's school are all part-time professors.
According to the relevant regulations of the school, part-time professors are entitled to reimbursement of travel expenses, board and lodging during work, and school hours allowance.
“It’s less than 3,000 yuan a month. It’s not as profitable as they can solve one more project problem for the enterprise. Many craftsmen are not motivated.” Deng Anzhi said.
Accurately matching the talent gap, still need to find the coordinates
Despite seeing many pain points in vocational school talent training, Deng Anzhi still has confidence in vocational school talent training due to relevant policies issued by the state.
Deng Anzhi suggested that a dynamic mechanism for professional setting and adjustment should be established as soon as possible.
Vocational schools should insist on opening up schools, take the initiative to connect with new economic formats, interact with industries, accurately match the talent gap, and find accurate coordinates.
Respond to the demands of the society and industry for talents in a timely manner, adjust the talent training model, reconstruct the curriculum system and curriculum construction that suits the needs, so that it can quickly respond to the needs of new technologies, new economies, and new formats.
"Vocational school talent training is a gradual and urgently needed process." Li Weizhe said.
He believes that cultivating talents is a staged process. At least two to four years of teaching "time difference" will be experienced. It is not that watering in the morning will result in the evening, and many high-skilled talents can "sit on the bench." people.
Cultivating skilled talents, whether vocational schools add new majors or improve the level of teachers, must have enough patience. It is difficult to quickly or radically cultivate talents that enterprises really need. Therefore, schools must serve the needs of local industry development and become bigger Strengthen the school’s superior majors.
Nowadays, the reform of vocational school education is steadily advancing, and the early construction of talent base and the construction of a number of exemplary professions have also yielded little results.
Li Weizhe also believes that the government should also increase its support for local areas of advantage.
Create an environment for the free flow of capital, technology, and information, and let market forces choose the direction of talent flow.
"When health caregivers and prefabricated construction workers can get hundreds of thousands of annual salaries and are recognized by the whole society, there will definitely be more parents who let their children apply for relevant majors."
Our reporter Liu Xu