What do you think of vocational education? Even today, many people in the society still regard it as an education that is "inferior to others", and "unwilling to send their children to vocational colleges" has also become the voice of some parents.
But in fact, vocational education is not only a means of alleviating the poor and a practical education that teaches people a skill, but also a basic force for revitalizing the country's economic and social development. In order to meet the urgent need for technical and skilled talents in the development of the country and society, the steady development of vocational undergraduate education has become a clear guide for the country, and it is an important measure to attract young people to become talents with skills and serve the country with skills.
What are the underlying reasons for the development of undergraduate vocational education? How can I walk steadily? This reporter had an exclusive dialogue with Zeng Tianshan, deputy director of the Institute of Vocational and Technical Education Center of the Ministry of Education.
Reason: Based on the urgent need for high-skilled talents, high-quality employment, and high-quality development
Reporter: What are the reasons for vigorously developing vocational undergraduate education?
Zeng Tianshan:
Objectively speaking, the development of undergraduate vocational education is a key link to promote high-quality economic development and improve the vocational education system.
First of all, to meet the urgent need for high-skilled talents for the high-quality development of the national economy.
my country has the world’s most complete industrial system. It promotes the upgrading of manufacturing and the development of emerging industries, and promotes industrial development from the low-end to the high-end. It urgently needs the support of high-skilled talents. At present, the total number of high-skilled talents is only more than 50 million, accounting for only 50 million people. 28% of the total number of skilled talents; according to estimates, by 2025, there will be a shortage of nearly 30 million talents in the ten key areas of my country's manufacturing industry.
The "14th Five-Year Plan" plans to add 8 million senior workers, making the total number of highly skilled personnel account for 30% of the total number of skilled personnel, which is still a big gap compared with developed countries (generally more than 40%).
Secondly, to meet the objective needs of the people to achieve higher quality and fuller employment.
Employment is the foundation of people's livelihood. Solving the problem of employment depends fundamentally on development. Through the improvement of skills, the unemployed will have jobs and those who have jobs will be happy to work, so that low-income people can become middle-income groups.
At present, the total employment pressure in our country is still high. There are more than 15 million new-born laborers who need to find employment in cities and towns each year. Low- and middle-end jobs in traditional industries have decreased. The structural employment contradictions of more than 9 million college graduates are prominent, and it is difficult to find new places. Undergraduate colleges and private colleges and universities mean that the reform of higher education structure is imperative, and transformation and development are urgently needed.
Therefore, focusing on holding vocational education undergraduates and cultivating more high-skilled talents is an important means to solve the structural contradictions in employment.
Third, a key measure to improve the vocational education system to achieve high-quality development of vocational education.
Upgrading vocational education to the undergraduate level is the development trend of vocational education in the world since the late 20th century, such as dual universities in Germany and technical universities in Japan.
The development of undergraduate vocational education has enabled my country’s vocational education system to keep up with the pace of the world. Since 2019, the Ministry of Education has approved 33 schools to carry out vocational undergraduate pilots, and implement a long-term system to cultivate highly skilled talents, with an aim to cultivate talents comparable to science masters. The craftsmen of the big country broke the "ceiling" that vocational education stops at the junior college level, overcomes the embarrassment of upgrading from a high-quality vocational education college to an ordinary undergraduate, unblocked the growth channels of high-skilled talents, and leads the integration of vocational education and high-quality development.
Features: more innovative and technical requirements
Reporter: Since the development of undergraduate vocational education is the general trend, what are its characteristics and how are it different from vocational college education and general undergraduate education?
Zeng Tianshan:
In terms of training level, vocational undergraduate education has more innovative requirements than vocational college education.
Vocational education undergraduate, as the highest level of education in the current vocational education system, is the leader in the construction of modern vocational education system. It is not only for the industry, but also for the high-end areas of the industry, and cultivates innovative high-skilled talents. This is different from the vocational education at the junior college level and below, and it is inevitable to reflect the "advanced nature" of vocational education undergraduates.
The outstanding feature of undergraduate education in vocational education is new technology, which means to strengthen the content of high and new technology. The direction of upward ascent.
The vocational education undergraduate level is the undergraduate level, which is not only at the top of vocational education, but also a kind of undergraduate education level. It must coexist and compete with ordinary undergraduates and applied undergraduates, and at the same time have its own differentiated development advantages.
At the practical level, the vocational education major is mainly to follow the enterprise, while the vocational education undergraduate course has risen from adapting to the industry to moderately lead the development of the industry; From the school-enterprise cooperation to the integration of production and education, the implementation is the deep integration of the face and face, emphasizing the universality of the service objects; The combination rises to the unity of knowledge and action, emphasizing the creative level of the simultaneous use of hand and brain.
In terms of training content, vocational undergraduate education has more skill requirements than ordinary undergraduate education.
Vocational education has two characteristics. One is the specificity of its learning. What it learns is vocational or industry-oriented vocational content rather than universal knowledge; the other is that compared with general education, the purpose of this learning is to "get ", rather than "development", means that vocational education has a strong employment orientation.
From the perspective of the difference between undergraduate education of vocational education and other types of undergraduate education, especially applied undergraduates, one is that undergraduates of vocational education are endogenous rather than exogenous, that is, it is quite difficult to transform from ordinary undergraduate education (such as the transfer of lecture teachers). For the double-qualified teachers who can speak and do, the theoretical teaching is transformed into the integrated teaching of theory and practice, the knowledge teaching resources are transformed into the practical training equipment conditions, the integration of science and education is transformed into the integration of production and education, the school-community cooperation is transformed into the school-enterprise cooperation, and the graduation thesis is transferred For graduation works, etc.), the natural upgrade of high-quality vocational education is relatively smooth (in the integration of production and education, scientific research has been added, experiments have been added in practical training and practice, design has been added in production and service, and technical learning and mastery have been added. Improvements have been added in).
The second is that undergraduates of vocational education live at the top of the type rather than the bottom of the system, which is an upward channel for the type of vocational education.
In the prevailing trichotomy of academic education (training scientists)-engineering education (training engineers)-technical education (training technicians and technicians), undergraduates in vocational education train “technical engineers”.
Vocational education undergraduates are mainly geared towards cultivating innovative high-skilled talents in industries, while application-oriented undergraduates are mainly geared towards regional or local areas and serve local economic and social development. This is another difference between vocational undergraduates and applied undergraduates.
Development: Take the road of upgrading and transformation in parallel
Reporter: How to take the road of undergraduate vocational education? How should "stability" be embodied?
Zeng Tianshan: It is
necessary to implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on "Steady Development of Vocational Education Undergraduates". The development of vocational education undergraduates should neither blindly advance nor stop. It is necessary to adhere to "three highs, two convergences, and three failures." The overall development concept of “change”, and take a diversified development path that parallels upgrading and transformation.
Optimize the characteristics of type education.
Vocational education undergraduates should follow the rules of vocational education and must reach the level of undergraduate education. They are trained to be competent for technically complex operating positions, or applied technical positions that provide technical solutions for front-line operators, and can be directly employed in the enterprise and can help Skilled talents who bring economic benefits to enterprises.
To this end, it is necessary to explore the long-term system of training high-skilled talents, formulate professional standards in accordance with 247 majors of vocational education, design talent training programs, build a "double-qualified" teacher team, and build a "discipline + specialty" curriculum that integrates theory and practice. System, increase general education and innovation and entrepreneurship education, establish a "four-stage" stepped practice curriculum system of skill operation-technology application-skill technology integration-technological innovation, and form an evaluation system of school-enterprise integration.
Adhere to the new standard and high threshold.
The promulgation of vocational undergraduate education colleges and professional setting documents has resolved the issue of administrative licensing for undergraduate vocational education. It is necessary to strictly follow the new standards for examination and approval, mature one by one and develop one by one, rather than indiscriminately.
Adhere to the path of connotative development.
Vocational education undergraduates should follow the school-running philosophy of “not seeking the largest, but seeking the best, but seeking to meet the needs of society”, aiming at the direction of technological change and industrial optimization and upgrading, promoting universal vocational integration, and promoting the education chain, talent chain, and industrial chain. The innovation chain is effectively connected, quality is improved, and characteristics and standards are developed.
Learn from and learn from the experience and lessons of ordinary undergraduate colleges and universities, no longer follow the old path of scale expansion, and control the scale of schooling and multi-campus education. The number of majors should be less than the average of 60 ordinary undergraduates.
(Our reporter Jin Haotian)
Related Links
"Three highs, two cohesion, three unchanged"
The "three highs", that is, undergraduate vocational education is a high level of vocational education. A group of majors will be built with a high starting point and high standards. Through long-term training, it will provide high-level and high-level technical and technical personnel support for industrial transformation and upgrading.
"Two connections", that is, pay attention to the connection with the management methods of the professional setting of secondary vocational and higher vocational colleges, and the connection with the setting standards of undergraduate-level vocational schools and related evaluation plans.
The "three constants" means that the type of vocational education remains unchanged in the direction of running a school, the technical skills and talents remain unchanged in the orientation of training, and the integration of production and education and the cooperation between school and enterprise remain unchanged in the training model.
(Compiled by our reporter Jin Haotian)