Yang Miao, a student studying nursing in Henan Province, feels lower than other people. "I'm the only one in my family studying in a vocational (职业的) school," she told Sixth Tone. "Most of my cousins are in universities. It's shameful for me." Like Yang, many people think vocational education is lower than universities. Many want this to change.
On May 1, 2022, the revised (修订的) Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China took effect. It is the first time the law has been revised since it was made in 1996. And the city of Shenzhen was listed as a pilot (试点的) city for national vocational education reform. It will spend 10 billion yuan by the end of 2022 to support vocational education.
The revised law calls for raising the social position and income (收入) of skilled workers. It says that vocational education is as significant as general education. Vocational school graduates should enjoy the same chances for jobs as graduates of regular schools at the same level. The revised law also encourages vocational schools to work together with industries.
At present, there are 11,300 vocational schools across China with 30.88 million students. This is the world's largest vocational education system, according to China Daily.
However, in some vocational schools, the teaching methods and school courses cannot meet the requirement to some high-level jobs. To deal with such problems, companies are encouraged to work with vocational schools in different ways, such as setting up trainee posts (实习岗位) for vocational students, taking part in writing textbooks, and training teachers of vocational schools.