The First World Conference on the Development of Vocational and Technical Education is being held A new era of technological innovation regardless of its provenance is approaching

Meng Fanjun, a 20-year-old student of Tianjin Zhongde University of Applied Technology, and his friends won the gold medal of the first World Vocational College Skills Competition, and what made them even more excited was that the first World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference (hereinafter referred to as the "Conference") sent a signal of a new era.

In his congratulatory letter to the conference, President Xi Jinping said that vocational education is closely linked to economic and social development, which is of great significance to promoting employment and entrepreneurship, helping economic and social development, and improving people's well-being.

"Vocational education is increasingly valued, and skilled personnel and craftsmen in big countries will be respected as much as scientific researchers." This makes Meng Fanjun full of expectations for his future.

The "China Solution" for Vocational Education

Zhang Liming, a "model of the times" who has been rooted in the front line of power repair for 35 years, feels that "an era of respecting labor and attaching importance to creation has arrived!" ”

This graduate of a technical school in Tianjin was awarded the honors of "Model of the Times" and "Pioneer of Reform" for his daily tempering and innovation. Today, he is an adjunct teacher at several universities, and has been hired by Chinese University and Tianjin University as an off-campus counselor.

This time, he brought a new generation of artificial intelligence distribution network live operation robots and a series of innovative products developed by the team to the conference, "let the world see the wisdom of our country's technical skills and talents."

At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change are advancing by leaps and bounds, and the new crown pneumonia epidemic has affected the world, and the World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference, initiated and hosted by the mainland government for the first time, is held in Tianjin, China, which has a deeper significance.

As the world's second largest economy, China's economy has maintained medium-high speed growth for a long time, which is inseparable from the outstanding contribution of vocational education. Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng said that China has established the largest vocational education, vocational education and industry-education integration, affecting or even determining the acceleration of regional and national economic and social high-quality development.

How to work together to promote the high-quality development of global vocational education and help build a better world in the post-epidemic era has become a global issue. Through this international event that spans time and space, a "China plan" for vocational education is displayed in front of the eyes of the world.

Lu Xin, president of the China Society of Vocational and Technical Education, believes that in China's new journey toward the construction of a modern and powerful country, today's vocational education has also stepped onto a new platform and stood in front of a new starting point.

The talent dividend has turned into real productivity

The opportunity to compete with the world's network security experts made Li Hongbing, who is studying at Tianjin Electronic Information Vocational and Technical College, excited. Just when he and his teammates were busy engaged in fierce offensive and defensive battles on the Internet, the participating companies outside the field also launched a "robbery war". Some employers have discussed, simply use the salary bidding method to determine the high and low, "to see who pays the higher price".

At the moment of winning the gold medal, the Anhui boy strengthened his dream when he entered school, "I can also change the world through my own strength." As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, in the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country, vocational education has a broad future and great promise.

For a long time, a large number of workers trained by vocational education on the mainland have changed people's lives in various fields.

China is the world's most populous developing country, "Chinese-style modernization is the largest population of modernization, we must accelerate the realization of the transformation from a big country in human resources and education to a strong country in human resources, a strong country in talent and education." Huai Jinpeng said. Vocational education is the type of education most closely related to economic and social development, and its strategic position in the overall situation of economic and social development has become more and more prominent.

During the conference, the "White Paper on the Development of Vocational Education in China" was released for the first time, showing the world China's career development achievements with a set of figures: in the past 10 years, vocational education has trained and transported 61 million high-quality workers and technical skills for all walks of life, especially for key industries such as high-speed rail and ultra-high voltage power transmission and transformation.

In the fields of modern manufacturing, strategic emerging industries and modern service industries, more than 70% of the new front-line employees are from vocational school graduates, promoting the release and realization of Chinese dividends, promoting the transformation of advanced technology and equipment into real productivity, and providing a basic guarantee and vitality for China's industrial chain and supply chain to maintain strong resilience and achieve stability.

With the transformation of industrial informatization and intelligence, vocational education has also focused on the forefront of digital technology, accelerated professional upgrading, laid out emerging majors, transformed and upgraded traditional majors, made talent training conform to the transformation of the digital economy, and provided a leading force for the acceleration of the digital economy.

At present, China's vocational education has set up more than 1,300 kinds of majors and more than 120,000 professional points, covering all fields of the national economy, providing a steady stream of talent dividends for the industrial economy.

Breaking the "ceiling" of vocational education

Meng Fanjun already has a clear plan for the future. He is delving into artificial intelligence and image recognition technology, hoping to continue his studies in this field after graduation. He believes that his research direction is different from that of researchers, "their design ability is stronger, and I can turn their design into reality, solve on-site problems, and ensure the stable operation of equipment." ”

He studied at Tianjin Zhongde University of Applied Technology, breaking the "ceiling" of vocational education that used to stop at the specialist level. In recent years, vocational education at different levels in the mainland is being effectively penetrated, providing students with diversified growth options and multi-path talent channels.

On May 1, 2022, the newly revised Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China clarified that "vocational education is an education type with the same important status as general education", marking that the construction of a modern vocational education system has entered a new process of rule of law.

"In the past, the social status of vocational education was not high, and it was not attractive enough for outstanding young people, and one of the main reasons was that vocational education was limited to the specialist level." Wu Xuemin, secretary of the party committee of Nanjing University of Technology and Technology, believes that many talents who are interested in and have the potential to engage in technical skills are reluctant to choose vocational education due to the limitation of their academic qualifications. He believes that the extension of vocational education to the undergraduate level not only meets the needs of the majority of young people for the diversification of undergraduate education, but also provides a path for expanding the middle-income group.

This is also a new challenge brought by the changes of the times to vocational education. Sun Yao, vice minister of education, said that vocational education should aim at new technologies and industrial changes in the digital age, and vigorously cultivate high-quality technical skills talents.

Huang Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of the Flexible Electronic Frontier Science Center of Northwestern Polytechnical University, said that at present, the world is at a key node of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change, and future development should be built on a modern economic system that relies on high-level technical skills and high-quality human resources.

"We invest no less than $500 million a year in education." Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Electric Appliances, sighed that Gree has developed from a traditional manufacturing enterprise to an intelligent enterprise, and deeply understands the importance of talents, "Through education, everyone can have dignity, everyone has a job, and everyone has a better life." ”

Contribute Chinese wisdom to the world's vocational education

For Chen Shuhua from Madagascar, it is "too lucky" to come to China to learn about mechanical automation. She is a junior at Tianjin Vocational and Technical Normal University. This post-00 girl likes to study how robots transport objects on the mechatronics intelligent training platform, and how to achieve automatic grasping by mechanical arms. She told reporters that it is still difficult to access such intelligent equipment in her home country, and she looks forward to learning more technology in China and spreading it to more places.

Today, vocational education is the link to the world. At the opening ceremony of the conference, education ministers from more than 10 countries all expressed similar views in video speeches. At present, China has established stable vocational education contacts with more than 70 countries and international organizations, cooperated with 19 countries and regions to establish more than 20 Luban workshops, and opened the "Chinese + Vocational Education" special project in more than 40 countries and regions to contribute the Chinese wisdom of vocational education to the world.

With more and more Chinese enterprises and Chinese products going global, China's vocational education is also playing a role in the development of the world economy. Ministers of education from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, South Korea, Ireland and other countries have said that vocational education has become an important carrier for people of all countries to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and deepen mutual learning and mutual learning. At the same time, vocational education is also highly anticipated, becoming an important force for human society to cross the development gap and revitalize the global development cause.

"The Conference is an important Chinese initiative to align with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." Huai Jinpeng said that China is willing to work with other countries to create a new platform, a new paradigm and a new mechanism for international exchanges and cooperation in vocational education.

Tianjin, August 21 (Xinhua) --

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Hu Chunyan, trainee reporter Yang Jie Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily