Investigate | The arrogance and prejudice of skill: the "occupational contempt chain" of colleges and universities is formed, and technicians become the bottom?

Economic Observer Network reporter Zhou Ju intern Hu Yaodan "Ignorance." When the Economic Observer Network reporter talked to Li Yu (pseudonym) about the current prejudice of college students against the profession of technicians, his answer was quite indignant. Li Yu, a senior majoring in mineral processing, received the school's highest gold scholarship in 2021. Li Yu told reporters that many students in his major are not so willing to engage in work related to their majors, while students in other majors are full of high-level intellectual arrogance for words such as "mining" and "technology". ”

Behind the "chain of contempt" of such college majors, there is an extreme shortage of senior technicians in many industries in China. In fact, at present, in related engineering fields such as mineral processing, senior technicians with certain knowledge reserves and research capabilities are the most "popular" technical talents. The data shows that There are about 22 million senior technicians in China, and the corresponding phenomenon is that 9.09 million college students will graduate in 2021 and there is still a phenomenon of "difficult to find a job".

Within colleges and universities, the embarrassing situation of "engineering" disciplines is not only highlighted in Li Yu's mineral processing major. The same happens in environmental engineering majors. "I don't plan to take the graduate school entrance examination in this major, and I am likely to do hard work when I come out." Shu Yi (pseudonym) said that she was a senior majoring in environmental engineering at a university in the southwest region, and had prepared to take the exam for law graduate school in order to "jump away from the environmental engineering major", but she was stuck in the "cross-examination" pressure and gave up the exam before the exam. Thinking about the future proposition, Shu Yi is full of confusion, she is now ready to enter the public institution, still very repulsive to professional-related work.

Shu Yi said that the working environment such as the sewage treatment plant is not what he wants, nor is it what his parents want, "If you can't pass the exam, you will find an ordinary job in the company arranged by your parents, in short, you will not go to the sewage treatment plant." Her roommate had the same idea, choosing to go to graduate school in journalism and communication.

According to the "2021 College Student Employability Survey Report" released by Zhaopin, 29.8% of science graduates and 39.5% of engineering graduates tend to work in technical positions, while the rest of science students and engineering students are all over the administrative, research and development, operation, human resources and other work.

Under the continuous development of education and the fixed label of mechanic, the arrogance and prejudice of college students against the profession of "technician" have existed for a long time. In colleges and universities, computers, electronic technology, data, and finance have become "species" at the top of the chain of contempt. But is the mechanic profession really so bad? Data show that fresh graduates can get more salaries in technical positions than they expect. In addition, senior technicians in mining majors "work more mentally", and senior technicians in automation majors "generally come out to be programmers and engineers".

"Manual work" and "mental work", "sunset industry" and "sunrise industry", "skilled workers" and "engineers", the words are almost the same, but they have created a "chain of contempt" for college majors. In colleges and universities, computers, electronic technology, data, and finance have become majors at the top of the chain of contempt, and in the context of the rise of intelligent technology and the empowerment of traditional technology industries, career choices related to "technicians" continue to be marginalized.

Technique "Chain of Contempt"

Since ancient times, "having a skill" is the foundation of young people's existence in a complex society, and it is also the ardent expectation of parents and relatives, but for "what kind of technology can live a life"? At present, the answers given by college students are not diverse.

"In order to improve the working environment and wages, college students want to develop to the current fire of computers and big data, and few people insist on it in the field of basic technicians in a single working environment." Shi Cheng (pseudonym), a sophomore majoring in mining at the same school as Li Yu, told reporters. In the Internet age, computer technology is considered the most promising "new technology job", and the major is also at the top of the "despised chain" of university majors.

This phenomenon is not limited to this university, in fact, such a "professional contempt chain" has emerged in colleges and universities across the country. According to the 2021 University Student Employability Survey Report, it ranks first in the industries that graduates are most looking forward to working in, WITH MORE THAN a quarter of the choices, followed by real estate/construction (10.9%), culture/media/entertainment/sports (8.7%), and finance (7.2%).

According to the notice on the official website of the School of Computer Science of Shicheng's university, in 2021, the School of Computer Science of the university will temporarily increase the number of places to transfer majors "to meet the strong desire and demand of students to study in the School of Computer Science and Technology".

"In the situation where there are more monks and less meat, there are many people who want to transfer to our college, but it is very difficult, for example, the results in the original major should be very good." A sophomore student in the school's school of computer science told reporters that computer technology is changing rapidly, if you just look at this major as a hot topic at the moment, you want to work in the computer field, it should not go too long.

In Shi Cheng's major, according to the situation of "voting with his feet", compared with the computer major, the situation of the mining major can be regarded as very "bleak". According to the incomplete survey statistics of the Economic Observer Network reporter, about one-third of the students in the major transfer to other majors for study after completing the first academic year.

Shi Cheng said that although there are many lectures within the major to explain professional prospects, employment directions, working environment, etc., such as the intelligent "smart mine" lectures that combine the current popularity, the activities are carried out more frequently, but the participation of students is not high.

However, there are also excellent students in mining and majors who disagree with such situations. "The students who were transferred away were not familiar with our majors." Li Yu said that the professional counterpart work is the concentrator, and then to the China Railway, chemical plant to engage in technical work, will not go down the mine for operation, but the work place is generally located in the suburbs, not friendly to young people.

"The so-called higher intellectuals will always look down on those [technology] in this atmosphere. [Those students] are all living on campus and have not experienced the 'beatings' of society. Li Yu somewhat directly expressed his dissatisfaction with the "chain of contempt" of college majors, "Salary can best reflect the value of the major, if everyone knows the monthly salary of technicians, maybe everyone wants to go, especially senior technicians." ”

Li Yu believes that the formation of this "chain of contempt" actually has several reasons, the first is that everyone "does not see much, did not personally feel", and the second reason is more ridiculous, "the majors are different, everyone does not know much about other majors, just listen to the name to make an analogy (good or bad)." ”

The relevant data in the "2021 College Student Employability Survey Report" shows that the expected salary of this year's fresh graduates has increased significantly, mainly concentrated in the range of 4,000-6,000 yuan. The economic observation network reporter found a large number of recruitment needs in the "manufacturing" project of a recruitment platform by limiting the requirements of "undergraduate", most of which are distributed in salaries of 6000-12000 yuan, which varies due to different regions and different requirements. In terms of salary, the "charm" of technical positions is unlimited, but most college students still have no intention of doing so.

Unexpectedly, Li Yu, who is very optimistic about the future of his profession, is also a member of the "army of change". Li Yu believes that he has a better choice, and said that he may study for graduate school in the future in exchange for more possibilities, and may also be admitted to the transfer student. "If I had to choose, I wouldn't choose (as a technician), I'd prefer to do research, after all, I have a better choice, and my parents are very supportive." Li Yu said.

Sunset industry or sunrise industry?

The formation of the "professional contempt chain" of colleges and universities is more caused by the blurring of the prospects of the technical industry. In the modern society of high-tech and intelligent networking, "technicians" are also considered to be one of the backward industries. This also leads to the fact that compared with the popular majors of computer, culture and finance, the majors related to practical technical operations are relatively unpopular.

Obviously, there is a huge mismatch between this cognitive existence and reality. China is committed to developing into a "manufacturing powerhouse", and the gap and support for high-level skilled workers are very large.

"There are a lot of people who say that our mining is a sunset industry, saying that they are now advocating new energy, my God, this is simply punching themselves in the face!" Li Yu said with some indignation, "New energy is used in industries such as automobiles and mobile phones, and it needs hydropower, wind power, etc., and these foundations also need materials, such as iron, steel, concrete, silicon elemental materials of chips." It is understood that at the setting meeting of the university's high gold scholarship, a graduate student majoring in civil engineering said "sunset industry" to the chairman of the mining company.

The misunderstanding of college students slightly "not eating human fireworks" does not stop at industrial technology, and students with different majors also have different degrees of misunderstanding in the cognition of the profession of "technician". "In my eyes, even if it is technical work, the same is a coolie, most of our professional girls will change careers, do not change careers, estimate to become a teacher, very few people say to do professional counterpart work." 」 Shu Yi, an environmental engineering major, said none of her classmates in a dormitory would choose to do professional counterpart work, and her parents had already found a way out for her — working as a clerk in a company.

In fact, in addition to their own preferences, most engineering majors also face pressure from society. "There will be more than 400 enterprises in the school double selection, only a dozen of which are related to the environment, of which the gap in the occupation of 'environmental assessment' that girls can be competent is very small, while other related occupations are related to construction sites, indicating that boys are not willing to go." Shu Yi said that she participated in the school recruitment, but did not get a single offer, "Girls are only suitable for 'environmental assessment' work, but 'environmental assessment' work has no future." ”

"It always feels less decent, people ask your kids what they do, I say my kids are skilled workers, how can that work." Besides, how can being a mechanic not be tired. The mother of a classmate who left from environmental engineering to major said. Most of this idea comes from the "experience" of the older generation of assembly line technicians, a mother who worked in a factory when she was young, and she said it was difficult to accept that her children would have to work in that dirty environment.

At the same time, the reason why it is considered to be a skilled worker is "doing boring work" also comes from the design of college engineering training courses. Engineering majors will learn a practical course called "engineering training" in their freshman or sophomore year, which Shu Yi describes as "grinding screws", while Li Yu calls it "the study of the basics is not difficult or simple".

It is understood that in the process of learning the engineering training course, students will learn the basic skills necessary for engineering by operating machine tools and other methods. This kind of operation is mistaken by some students as one of the work contents of the corresponding major because it is a test of "hand kung fu".

Is the "coolie theory", "dirty mess theory" and "boring work theory" really a portrayal of reality? "You shouldn't be able to do physical work, most of it is mental power." Shi Cheng said that he did not feel that the technical work was undignified, and before listening to the lecture of the school leader, he also thought that the mining major might be going down the well to dig his own mines, but then he realized how naïve his ideas were.

"For example, the smart mine under the current situation, which integrates computers, exploration, surveying, mapping, deployment and various drawing and mapping software, is a high-tech, high-tech work, and the current mine is also responding to the country's environmental protection requirements, will have strict control of the environment, not likely to be dirty and messy image." Shi Cheng said that taking the mining profession as an example, counterpart work needs to be carried out in combination with a variety of high-tech technologies, and mining graduates can also engage in multi-faceted work, such as mine safety testing and mine design. "Now in response to the country's environmental protection problems, the general direction is to develop to smart mines, with the purpose of improving mine energy utilization and improving environmental protection rate." Shi Cheng said.

At the same time, a double-first-class university automation student told the Economic Observer Network reporter that more "senior technicians" are called "engineers" who participate in the development of manufacturing industry without entering the factory floor.

The student's university's electrical engineering discipline and Tsinghua University ranked first in the country, it is reported that the teaching content includes hardware, software two aspects, including deep learning, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc., "our embedded mainly refers to the development on the basis of hardware, such as the production of electronic equipment, generally is to do chips." The automation major in our school is more inclined to computers, and generally comes out as programmers and engineers. ”

Behind the completely different titles of "physical work" and "mental work", "sunset industry" and "sunrise industry", "skilled worker" and "engineer", is a side of the reality that the talent gap of "senior technicians" is difficult to fill. From this point of view, improving the treatment of technical majors in colleges and universities and the definition of their career prospects are also important prerequisites for the promotion of national technical education reform.