Guangdong government will invest 1.5 billion RMB to develop higher vocational education in the next five years as provincial officials require municipalities and counties to expand expenditures in local vocational education. This marks the biggest support the province has ever given to vocation-al education. These moves were decided in the provincial government working meeting on vocational education this August and are of great importance to Guangdong's overall future development.

First, economic planners agree that industrial development is closely related to the technological and vocational education development. Just as there is a need for improved industrial systems, there is also a growing demand for talented knowledge workers.

According to Secretary of Guangdong CPC Zhang Dejiang, Guangdong is suffering from a shortage of 1.3 million skilled workers and the shortage has bottlenecked the development of the province's industries. Training more technicians and skilled workers will enhance Guangdong's innovation capacity and speed up the province's industrial structure optimization.

Second, expansion of vocational education in the countryside will help the agricultural workforce to acquire the skills needed in factories. This will boost the industrialization and urbanization of the province.

Third, vocational training is the weakest link in Guangdong's education. Expansion of vocational education will provide local people more choices for their personal improvements.

Finally, providing vocational education for the unemployed and young will improve their employability.

TARGETS

Guangdong had conducted a series of measures to improve vocational education in recent years. In 2005, the province's 833 secondary vocational schools enrolled 0.41 million students and the students in these schools totaled 1.04 million, up 57.3 percent and 72.4 percent respectively compared to 2002. But the expansion still cannot meet Guangdong's growing demand for skill-ed workers.

Guangdong officials decided that from 2006 to 2010, the provincial government will input 300 million RMB each year to higher vocational education and building training centres for higher and secondary vocational education schools. All the municipalities will contribute at least 30 percent of their surtax revenue for education to vocational education. By the year 2010, Guangdong's vocational secondary schools will enroll 650,000 or 45 percent of junior secondary school graduates, and have 1.74 million students in total. The province's vocational higher schools will provide training courses to 10 million workers every year.

STRATEGIES

Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua stressed developing vocational education by following eight basic strategies:

1) Improve human and capital re-source management, expand or down-size the present 800 plus vocational schools and establish new schools according to Guangdong's industrial structure adjustment. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) region will become the centre for vocational training, while in the less-developed regions, local municipalities will oversee several vocational schools and some districts shall have one to two vocational secondary schools. Establishing new schools must be in line with the needs of local industrial development.

2) Industries, enterprises, non-governmental organizations, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese are welcome to invest in vocational education as local governments provide preferential policies on land, water and power use for them.

3) Put a balanced effort in the development of higher, secondary and primary vocational educations.

4) Provide more on-the-job training. Enterprises shall provide necessary training to its employees while taking 2.5 percent of their salary as a training fee. For enterprises that are not able to offer training themselves, local district-level governments need to provide necessary courses.

5) Adjust the vocational schools' course arrangements according to local industrial structure adjustments, especially to the development needs of Guangdong's nine pillar industries and the PRD regions' manufacturing bases.

6) Improve employability. Special investment and training will be provided for senior skilled workers, re-employment projects, developing vocational education in less-developed region, offering training to one million youths living in the countryside, people who want to start their business and ex-servicemen.

7) Improve the management system of vocational schools.

8) Aim to satisfy the public's demand for diversified knowledge.

GUANGDONG'S VOCATIONAL EDUCATION TODAY

In June, 2006, Guangdong boasted 709,000 skilled workers, among whom 108,950 or 15.4 percent are senior skill workers, up from 6 percent in 2000.

In the past three years, Guangdong's vocational education ranked first in China for student enrollment, students in school, students granted with skill certificates and graduate employment rates.

Guangdong is pulling out all its stops to develop vocational training so as to provide abundant human resources for Guangdong's industrial upgrade and modernization.

Editor: Yan