Vocational courses to get higher profile

The Ministry of Education plans to give more recognition to students in vocational schools in the next five years by establishing a separate entrance examination system and channeling more resources into their employment.

Figures from the ministry show that China has the world's largest number of students receiving vocational education.

There were around 29 million vocational students in 11,500 schools at the end of last year. The 1,200-plus majors offered by such schools nationwide can produce 10 million skilled workers a year for the manufacturing and services sectors.

However, such students do not win as much respect as their peers receiving higher education in colleges and universities, and that has hampered the development of vocational education and led to labor shortages in some areas.

Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, said society has given vocational students less recognition, and the government needs to take the initiative to break down the stereotype.

"For example, the civil service examination is usually open to graduates with bachelor or master's degrees, rather than those from vocational schools," he said.

"Also, people evaluate the quality of a junior or senior high school only by how many college students it produces each year."

The central government has placed more emphasis on vocational education in recent years and has made it a priority during the 14th Five-year Plan (2021-25).

Chen Ziji, director of the ministry's department of vocational and adult education, told a news conference in late December that the ministry would carry out three campaigns in the next five years focusing on improving vocational students' social recognition and promoting their fair treatment.

He said the first thing is to build an entrance examination system for vocational education and to connect the different periods when students acquire vocational knowledge.

Chen said education resources for college students will be shared with those in vocational schools. That could see university courses made available to vocational students, for example.

The government will also launch a certification system to evaluate the degrees earned by vocational graduates to advance their fair treatment.

"We will make efforts to improve the fairness of the system for their education and employment, securing them equal opportunities with university graduates in seeking jobs, salaries and career promotion," he added.