Zibo ramps up efforts to integrate industry, education

The city of Zibo – located in East China's Shandong province – will spare no effort to train up more skilled professionals in its workforce, maximizing and optimizing measures already rolled out for the development of vocational education.

That commitment was made by Zibo education bureau official Li Xiaotong at a news briefing on May 9.

The city has been intensifying its policy support, innovating in the field of talent learning and training and promoting industry-education integration in recent years, Li said – adding that a great number of top professionals had been deployed to advance local economic and social progress.

Furthermore, Zibo has rolled out plans to encourage innovation in vocational education and help match supply and demand between colleges and small and medium-sized enterprises in the emerging sectors.

More than 250 customized training programs have been launched for enterprises in higher education institutions and vocational schools in Zibo, benefiting about 10,000 students.

To further optimize disciplines in colleges and universities, the local government is providing financial support. What's more, it plans to create dozens of first-rate discipline clusters in vocational schools.

The city has also invested 2.11 billion yuan ($301 million) to build a public internship and training base, which will benefit 60,000 people every year.

Finally, a more flexible recruitment mechanism has been adopted to help schools employ technicians and managerial personnel from enterprises, to better train qualified employees for small and medium-sized companies.