Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to vocational education, vigorously promoted the reform and innovation of vocational education, and achieved remarkable development achievements.
Four constructions build the foundation for the development of vocational education in the new era
(1) Institutional construction.
The state has successively issued the "Decision on Accelerating the Development of Modern Vocational Education", "Several Opinions on Deepening the Integration of Industry and Education", "Opinions on Implementing the Lifelong Vocational Skills Training System", "Vocational School School-Enterprise Cooperation Promotion Measures", and "National Vocational Education Reform Implementation Plan" " and a series of major policy measures, the Vocational Education Law has been comprehensively revised and promulgated for implementation.
A vocational education system with Chinese characteristics is basically established with the fundamental task of morality and cultivation of people, the combination of morality and skill as the education standard, the integration of production and education as the development path, school-enterprise cooperation as the school-running model, work-study integration as the teaching feature, and type education as the basic orientation. , The discourse system is basically formed.
(2) System construction.
General Secretary Xi Jinping personally outlined the construction of a modern vocational education system.
Six departments including the Ministry of Education have compiled and released the "Modern Vocational Education System Construction Plan (2014-2020)".
Today's China's vocational education system is a lifelong education system that serves people's career development, and realizes the vertical connection of all educational levels within the system; it is a diversified talent training system that connects with the development trend of science and technology and matches the market demand, and realizes the vocational education system. Internal and external horizontal integration.
Vocational schools and training institutions scattered across urban and rural areas weave a huge social employment and entrepreneurship service network, striving to give everyone the opportunity to shine in life.
(3) Quality construction.
At the national level, the "Action Plan for Innovation and Development of Higher Vocational Education (2015-2018)", "Action Plan for Improving the Management Level of Vocational Colleges (2015-2018)", "Action Plan for Improving the Quality of Vocational Education (2020-2023)" The "Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Modern Vocational Education", etc., effectively guide the development of vocational education to focus on connotation and quality construction, and further consolidate the core position of teaching.
Launched the "High-level Vocational Colleges and Professional Construction Plan with Chinese Characteristics", 197 higher vocational colleges and 253 professional groups were included in the first batch of "Double-High" projects; strengthened the construction of vocational education textbooks, and 314 vocational education textbooks were awarded the first national textbook Construction Award, accounting for 1/3 of all outstanding textbook awards; further improve the vocational education standard system such as teaching standards, and start a new round of revision of the professional talent training plan; improve the education quality evaluation system, highlight employment orientation, and innovate industry organizations, Evaluation mechanism for the participation of enterprises and social organizations.
The employment rate of graduates of vocational schools has maintained a high level. The employment rate of graduates of secondary and higher vocational schools has exceeded 95% and 90% respectively, and the employment rate of professional counterparts has been stable at more than 70%.
(4) Team building.
Guided by the "Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the Construction of Teachers in the New Era" and "The Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era" by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, relevant departments have issued the "Reform and Implementation of Deepening the Construction of "Double-Qualified" Teachers in Vocational Education in the New Era. Program", "National Vocational College Teacher Teaching Innovation Team Construction Program", and "Vocational College Teacher Quality Improvement Plan", forming a four-level training system of "national demonstration and leadership, provincial-level overall implementation, city-county linkage guarantee, and school-based characteristic training" , and established 102 national vocational teacher enterprise practice bases.
The number of full-time teachers in vocational schools across the country has increased from 1.11 million in 2012 to 1.29 million in 2021, an increase of 17%. The proportion of "double-qualified" teachers in professional courses exceeds 55%, and the ability and quality of teachers have been comprehensively strengthened.
Four reforms inject vitality into vocational education in the new era
(1) Reforming the way of educating people and answering the question of how to cultivate good talents.
Adhere to moral cultivation, promote the integration and unification of ideological and political education and technical skills training, and improve the professional ethics, technical skills and employment quality of educated people; adhere to school-enterprise cooperation, promote school-enterprise dual education, order training, and implement China Characteristic apprenticeship system; adhere to the combination of work and study, promote the formation of various educational resources, and make good use of the comprehensive education mechanism of "post-class competition certificate"; insist on strengthening capabilities, promote professional connection with the industrial chain and innovation chain, and deepen the "three education reform", Build a practical teaching system; insist on teaching students according to their aptitude, promote the reform of the examination and enrollment system, and implement flexible and diverse learning methods and flexible learning systems; adhere to the characteristics of types, promote the reform of the "academic certificate + vocational skill level certificate" system, and improve education evaluation.
(2) Reform of the school-running model and answer the question of how to run the school well.
"The integration of production and education is the essential feature of vocational education, and school-enterprise cooperation is the basic form of vocational education, and it is not possible to run vocational education without the participation of industry enterprises" has become the starting point for a broad consensus and the reform of the school-running model.
Vocational schools are required to actively face industrial needs, anchor service fields, and target occupational characteristics, and adopt co-construction of industrial colleges, enterprise colleges, vocational education groups, technical skill platforms, technology transfer institutions and university science parks, technology business incubators, and makerspaces. "Introducing schools into enterprises", "introducing enterprises in schools", "integrating schools and enterprises" and other forms to build a community of shared future for schools and enterprises.
Encourage listed companies and industry leading enterprises to hold vocational education, encourage enterprises to deeply participate in vocational education, and encourage vocational schools to cooperate with social capital to jointly build, jointly manage and share vocational education infrastructure and training bases.
Vocational colleges have eclectic school-running models, systems, and mechanisms, reflecting the purpose of vocational education "service", the nature of "integration", the inevitability of "cooperation", and the characteristics of "vocational", enhancing the vitality of school-running.
(3) Reform of the management system, answering the question of how to manage effectively.
Established the reform direction of "mainly organized by the government to change the pattern of government overall management and social pluralistic education", and improved the institutional system and policy framework of government overall coordination, deep integration of production and education, and multi-party support from the society.
Strengthen the overall planning of the government. Under the coordination mechanism of vocational education work of the State Council, the responsibilities of each department shall be clarified, and each shall perform its own duties and be responsible for its own responsibility; implement the hierarchical management of vocational education and the local-based management system, and innovate the joint construction of innovative development highlands by the provinces and ministries, etc. Policies and measures to strengthen the supervision and assessment of the vocational education work of the provincial government; properly handle the relationship between the government and the society, the market, and schools, and in accordance with the requirements of the reform of "decentralization, management and service", give play to the role of industry guidance, school-enterprise cooperation, and social participation, and innovate Institutions and mechanisms, improve the governance structure, and implement the autonomy of running schools.
(4) Reform of the guarantee mechanism to answer the question of sustainable development.
General Secretary Xi Jinping made important instructions on vocational education, emphasizing that party committees and governments at all levels should increase institutional innovation, policy supply, and investment, carry forward the spirit of craftsmen, and improve the social status of technical and skilled talents.
The New Vocational Education Law provides a legal guarantee for running vocational education in the new era.
The outstanding performance is that the development of vocational education "into the plan", governments at all levels have incorporated the development of vocational education into the national economic and social development plan, increased human capital investment, and improved the multi-input mechanism; The horizontally integrated education path has advantages in employment and access to higher education, and enjoys the same treatment as ordinary school graduates in terms of employment, settlement, participation in recruitment, professional title evaluation, promotion, etc.; Creating greatness has become the fashion of the times. Activities such as vocational skills competitions provide a platform for technical and skilled talents to demonstrate their skills and compare their skills. Eligible high-level technical and skilled talents are included in the high-level talent plan, and salary incentives are increased to effectively improve their social status.
Four major layouts open up the future for vocational education in the new era
(1) Building a skilled society.
The National Vocational Education Conference in 2021 first proposed to build a skilled society. The new Vocational Education Law regards building a skilled society as the main task of developing vocational education. The goal of the basic construction of society.
Building a skill-based society is an inevitable requirement for building a modern socialist country. It is an important strategy for my country to cope with scientific and technological revolution, industrial transformation, and population transformation. It is also a major measure for the world's most populous country to strengthen human capital construction and accumulate skill dividends.
At present, the average years of education of the main working-age population in my country is 10.9 years, an increase of 1.35 years from 2010, of which vocational education is a major contributor.
70% of the new workers in modern manufacturing, modern service industry, strategic emerging industries and other fields come from vocational education. Middle and higher vocational schools train about 10 million high-quality technical and technical personnel every year, and carry out various training programs every year. 100 million person-times, and the educational pattern of serving the construction of a skill-based society has basically taken shape.
In the future, in optimizing the skill supply structure, improving the skill level of the rural population, developing the technical skills of adults, and developing the future skills of digital skills and green skills, it is necessary to make up for shortcomings, strengths and weaknesses, and create new advantages.
(2) Serve the national strategy.
I am afraid there is no education that is as directly related to national strategy as vocational education.
Since 2012, the relevant state departments have significantly adjusted the professional catalogue twice, and issued special plans such as the manufacturing talent development planning guide. The ability of vocational education to actively adapt to economic structure adjustment and industrial transformation has been enhanced. Significant contributions have been made in entrepreneurship, regional linkage assistance and counterpart cooperation between the east and west.
The Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of the Vision for 2035 put forward major goals and constructions such as "increasing labor productivity of all employees, optimizing the economic structure, upgrading the industrial base, and modernizing the industrial chain". In the face of major strategies such as manufacturing power and quality power, in the face of new strategies and new missions, vocational education has broad prospects and promises.
(3) Develop smart education.
The new Vocational Education Law proposes to build a modern vocational education system that serves the lifelong learning of the whole people, and further clarifies the nature of vocational education for everyone and for life.
Facing hundreds of millions of service objects, it is imperative to enable digital empowerment of vocational education and the development of smart vocational education.
In the past 10 years, the relevant state departments have vigorously promoted the informatization of vocational education and the modernization of teaching, and continuously expanded the educational space, laying a solid foundation for digital transformation.
In April 2022, the National Vocational Education Smart Education Platform was officially launched, covering 19 categories, bringing together more than 660 professional teaching resource libraries, more than 1,000 online quality courses and more than 2,000 open video courses, more than 4.2 million videos, Granular resources such as pictures and documents provide sufficient digital resources for national learning, and the overall layout of smart vocational education has taken shape.
In-depth implementation of smart education actions requires enriching online learning resources, innovating teaching methods, improving management models, increasing investment, and promoting vocational education informatization construction and integrated applications to a new level.
(4) Steadily go international.
In 2021, my country's total economic output will account for more than 18% of the world economy, an increase of 6.7 percentage points in 10 years.
More and more national enterprises that have grown and grown are going abroad, and there is an urgent need for Chinese and modernized vocational education to provide talent and skill support. It has become an inevitable trend for Chinese enterprises to join hands with Chinese vocational education to go global.
At present, in line with the national diplomatic strategy and the "going out" of Chinese enterprises, vocational colleges across the country have accepted 17,000 full-time students studying in China, and cooperated with 23 countries and regions to build 25 "Luban workshops" in more than 40 countries. The "Chinese + Vocational Education" special project has been carried out with the region, and the school-enterprise cooperation has held the China-Zambia Vocational and Technical College, etc. China's vocational education has been welcomed by the world.
A few days ago, my country successfully held the first World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference to make institutional arrangements for foreign exchanges and cooperation of vocational education. The era of Chinese vocational education showing its image on the international stage, building a brand, and competing in romance has come.
(The author is the vice president of the China Association for Vocational and Technical Education and a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University)
Sun Shanxue Source: China Youth Daily