Wang Jingli

wangjingli0715@163.com

OFFICIALS with the Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province suggested at a news conference held yesterday at the Civic Center in Futian District that continuous support will be given to help Shenzhen complete the building of six to eight national high-quality vocational schools.

Shenzhen has also been urged to build a modern vocational education system with Chinese characteristics by 2022 to provide the country and the world a “Shenzhen plan” on the development of vocational education.

Shenzhen was listed as a pilot city for national reform on vocational education last year by the Ministry of Education and Guangdong Provincial Government.

By the end of last year, the two authorities jointly published 20 measures on boosting a high-quality development of vocational education in Shenzhen.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has put forth five support policies and the Guangdong Provincial Government has proposed eight support policies for Shenzhen to innovate and develop its vocational education sector.

“Apart from supporting Shenzhen to build a high-level vocational education system, the education ministry also assists Shenzhen’s vocational schools to enroll students in Hong Kong and Macao, to promote mutual recognition of vocational degrees and to increase Shenzhen’s global influence on vocational education by building related innovation centers and platforms in foreign countries,” Chen Ziji, director of the ministry’s department of vocational and adult education, said yesterday.

Jing Lihu, head of the provincial education department, noted yesterday that Guangdong supports an integration development of Shenzhen’s vocational education and its high-end industries.

“Recent economic data indicated a growth in both the country’s exports and imports. More Chinese companies and their products are going global now, which requires our vocational education to follow the trend to better serve the global market. Shenzhen has its advantage in this regard,” said Jing.

Nie Xinping, vice mayor of Shenzhen, said at the press conference that the city will promote improving vocational education by further enhancing the integration of production and education.

At present, Shenzhen has 31 vocational schools, with 130, 000 enrolled students in aggregate. It was said at the press conference that Shenzhen will add 18,000 vocational school admissions in three years.

President Xi Jingping has earlier stressed the development of modern vocational education system in an instruction on improving the country’s vocational education.