The System of Vocational Education and Its Development

The system of vocational education consists of education in vocational schools and vocational training.

Vocational education in China is provided at three levels: junior secondary, senior secondary and tertiary.

Conducted mainly in junior vocational schools and aimed at training workers, peasants and employees in other sectors with basic professional knowledge and certain professional skills, junior vocational education refers to the vocational and technical education after primary school education and is a part of the 9-year compulsory education. The students in secondary vocational school should be primary school graduates or the youth with equivalent cultural knowledge and its schooling lasts 3 to 4 years. To meet the needs of labor forces for the development of rural economy, junior vocational schools are mainly located in rural areas where the economy is less developed.

The secondary level mainly refers to the vocational education in senior high school stage. Composed of specialized secondary schools, skill workers schools and vocational high schools, and as the mainstay of vocational education in China, secondary vocational education plays a guiding role in training manpower with practical skills at primary and secondary levels of various types.

Consisting of secondary technical schools and normal schoo1s, specialized secondary schools enroll junior high school graduates with a schooling of usually 4 years and sometimes 3 years, A few specialties are open only to senior high school graduates with the schooling lasting 2 years. The basic tasks of these schools are to train secondary-level specialized and technical talents for the forefront of production, and all the students should master the basic knowledge, theory and skills of their specialty in addition to the cultural knowledge required for higher school students.

Aiming at training secondary-level skill workers, skill worker schools enroll junior high school graduates and their schooling lasts 3 years. Quite capable of practicing and operating, their graduates will directly be engaged in production activities.

Developing on the basis of the structural reform of secondary education after China adopted the policy of reform and opening to the outside world and directly coming from the reorganization of regular high schools, vocational high school enrolls junior high school graduates and its schooling lasts 3 years. Its main task is to train secondary-1evel practice-oriented talents with comprehensive professional abilities and all-round qualities directly engaged in the forefront of production, service, technology and management. Accordingly, the specialties offered in vocational high schools are mainly related to the third industry.

In 2001, there were altogether 17,770 secondary vocational schools (including vocational high schools, specialized secondary schools and skill workers school), with the enrollment of 11,642,300 students and the recruitment of 3,976,300 students.

With the schooling lasting 2 to 3 years, tertiary vocational education mainly enroll graduates from regular high schools and secondary vocational schools. In recent years, the proportion of graduates form secondary vocational schools has been increased, establishing the link between secondary and tertiary vocational education gradually. Aiming at training secondary and high - level specialized technical and management talents needed in the economic construction, tertiary vocational education emphasiz6s the training of practice-oriented and craft-oriented talents. At present, institutions providing tertiary vocational education are divided into four categories. The first is the higher vocational technology institutions; the second is the 5-year higher vocational classes provided in the regular specialized secondary schools; the third is the tertiary vocational education provided in some regular higher education institutions and adult higher education institutions; the last is the reformed regular institutions offering 2 to 3-year higher education with the emphasis on training practice-oriented talents, namely high-level professional technical talents, for the forefront of production.

Vocational training of various forms has been playing a more and more important role in vocational education. At present, vocational training is mainly conducted and managed by the departments of education and labor, but enterprises are encouraged to provide vocational training for its own employees. In 2001, short-term training are proved for 100 million person-time.

The Achievements of Vocational Education in China

1.The Rapid Expansion of the Scale of Vocational Education

During the l5 years between 1980 and 2001, the proportion of regular senior high school students among all the students in senior secondary education has decreased from 81% to 54.7%, while the proportion of secondary vocational school students has increased from 19% to 45.3%. From l980 to 2001, secondary vocational education institutions produced 50 million graduates, fostering millions of secondary-level and primary-level technical workers, managers, skill workers and other labors with good vocational and technical education.

2.The Big Stride Made in the Construction of Vocational Education Teachers

Teachers for vocational education are mostly graduates from regular higher education institutions. Since 1989, over 160 higher education institutions (HEIs) have established departments, specialties or classes devoted to the training of vocational education teachers. At the same time, the government began the establishment of teacher training bases for vocational education, Nowadays, there are over 50 training bases set by vocational technical colleges which are affiliated to HEIs and over 200 bases set by central departments and local governments. As a result, a training bases network has basically taken shape, meeting the needs of teacher training for vocational education of various forms and at various levels.

3.The Increase of the Quality and Level of Vocational Education

During the past 50 years, especially the 20 years after reform and opening to the outside world, much attention has been paid to the quality and level of vocation education as well as the schooling efficiency. Meanwhile its scale has been extraordinary expanded. By the end of 2001, more than 3000 key and pilot vocational schools have been established, promoting the overall development of vocational education.

4.The Primary Fruits of the Teaching Reform of Vocational Education

Learning the foreign modern vocational education thought and teaching patterns to improve the level of teaching is an important component of the reform of vocational education, For example, the "dual-track system " of Germany, the educational and training pattern based on the ability in Australia and Canada, the Employment Education Structure (MES) advocated by the World Labor Organization, the " Skill Courses for Starting Small Enterprises" initiated by the UNECO and the " Business and Trade Simulated Company" springing up widely all over the world, all became the models for the reform of Chinese vocational education in China.

5. Rapid Development of Vocational Education in Rural Areas

Since the 1980's, significant progress has been made in vocational education in rural areas of China with its quantity greatly enlarged and quality greatly improved.

6. More and More Important Role Played by Research on Vocational Education

With the development of vocational education, research on vocational education has been enhanced and a number of vocational education research institutions have been established, organizing the full-time and part-time research teams composed jointly by administrative departments responsible for vocational education, research institutions, vocational schools and academic organizations, carrying out various forms of vocational education research at different levels.

(Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China October 20, 2006)

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