21-year-old Zhengbao distance education: has grown up, and just happens to be a teenager

Source: World Wide Web

On May 14, 2021, a news item excited Zhu Zhengdong, founder of Zhengbao Distance Education, and his colleagues. The "Regulations on the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Private Education" promulgated on the same day injected another "tonic agent" into the development of vocational education. Government departments encourage vocational education in vocational colleges and universities to change from "government-sponsored" to "government-sponsored, socially diversified schools", encourage enterprises to participate in the training of professional talents, and realize flexible and diverse talent training models------ The launch of this series of measures undoubtedly depicts a brighter future for vocational education and also allows Zhengbao people to see a better future.

Perhaps, only the people in Zhengbao's heart can appreciate the sweetness of this "bitter and sweet". Since its inception in 2000, Zhengbao distance education has experienced many setbacks and tribulations to win the honor of today's Leader in Vocational Education in China. Even so, Zhengbao distance education has never been satisfied with the status quo and stopped under the guidance of Zhu Zhengdong, the founder who loves long-distance running. On March 8 of this year, Zhengbao chose to celebrate the company's 21st birthday with a half marathon run. The distance of 21.0975 kilometers of "Half Horse" is not only consistent with the company's 21st birthday figure, but also the spiritual connotation behind it shows that Zhengbao people will not be afraid of dangers and obstacles, bravely move forward, continue to create a new situation in vocational education and a better tomorrow for the company.

In the run, Zhengbao distance education gradually "grows up"; in the run, Zhengbao people are always full of vitality.

The 21-year-old Zhengbao distance education, like an "adult" with a marathon physique

I think that in that year, Zhu Zhengdong, who stayed from the unit without pay, experienced three entrepreneurial failures. He was also confused like many of his peers, until 2000, when he saw the opportunity for people to use vocational training to improve themselves in order to adapt to the fierce market competition, so he founded the China Accounting Online School. In fact, that year was catching up with the bursting of the Internet bubble, the industry entered the "severe winter season", people's denial and doubts about the Internet environment filled the entire market, and everyone was denying the training form of education through the Internet, so it was undoubtedly a big risk to make this decision at that time. But in Zhu Zhengdong's eyes, he saw the general trend of the arrival of the information society, he comprehensively analyzed the market environment at that time, and believed that the Internet bubble burst, but there was no such an inflated market, but the Internet was feasible, so he threw himself into it without hesitation.

At the beginning of the business, the company was in the "three noes" state of "no money, no one, no experience", but Zhu Zhengdong relied on a momentum to set up the "grass platform team" - more than a dozen people, seven or eight computers, and the people recruited had no experience in online education like him. The most difficult thing at that time was that there was no money, and the first few millions of funds were borrowed by him. Zhu Zhengdong not only sold his car, but also mortgaged his house. At that time, he spent all day thinking about how to borrow some more money, and finally he couldn't think of who else to borrow money from, so he couldn't sleep all night. At the time, there were no venture capital firms optimistic about the fledgling company, and on several occasions he was almost at the end of the road, fortunately, every time he was in a desperate situation, he turned the corner again.

It was not until the end of 2000, after receiving the investment of some individual investors, that Zhu Zhengdong was able to completely come out of the trough. After nearly a year of website system construction and hiring famous teachers to record classes, china accounting online school finally officially enrolled in February 2001. By 2002, the enrollment scale of China Accounting Online School had reached 20,000 to 30,000 people, with an income of 4 million yuan, and for the first time, it achieved a balance of income and expenditure, and began to embark on the road of rapid development.

After 21 years of hard work, the blueprint for the "complete education system" and the "lifelong education system" built in Zhu Zhengdong's heart has gradually become a reality. Not only have the company's employees doubled by dozens or hundreds of times compared with the past, Zhengbao distance education has also developed from a single accounting industry and a training project at the beginning to 2019, and has already had 20 brand websites and more than 300 counseling categories, covering 13 different industries such as accounting, medicine and health, construction engineering, law, entrepreneurship training, primary and secondary schools, self-examination, and examination and research, and has built a "complete education system". In the past 21 years, from 24-hour Q&A, online communication, live classes, to the launch of independent mobile courses and mobile e-books, Zhengbao has always been at the forefront of the industry.

Zhu Zhengdong once said: "The complete education system is a horizontal development system, that is, to continue to expand outside the existing 13 fields, enter more industries, continuously develop projects in new fields, dig deep into the potential of more new projects, and strive to form a situation where multiple websites go hand in hand." We hope that users in any field and of any age will be able to find the course products they need here. ”

In the face of the general trend of rapid knowledge update and lifelong learning becoming the melody of the times in today's era, Zhengbao distance education is also exploring the 13 areas that exist to be thoroughly done to meet the learning needs of students in different periods, so that students can "live to be old and learn from the old". Taking the accounting field as an example, Zhengbao distance education has formed a five-in-one development strategy of "examination training, continuing education, practical operation, financial and taxation consulting, and employment services", and has built a complete closed loop of lifelong education to meet the needs of accounting practitioners to update their knowledge and improve their skills at multiple stages. In the future, Zhengbao Education will also establish this kind of lifelong education system in various fields such as medicine, construction engineering, and law.

Nowadays, Zhengbao distance education has gone through the toddler and childish juvenile period, "grown up", and has become a leading institution in the field of vocational education in China. To be able to do this, it is inseparable from Zhu Zhengdong's unwavering two unwavering in the face of good times or adversities and in the company's development strategy, that is, to adhere to the development direction of distance education, and to adhere to the development strategy of establishing a perfect lifelong education system and a complete education system. As Zhu Zhengdong said at the company's 15th anniversary celebration, in the next 15 years, Zhengbao will still become a great education enterprise applying various latest technologies under the two "adherence" guidelines.

In fact, it is not easy to insist on doing these unshakable, but it is a tenacity and persistence that the zhengbao people rely on, and this spirit is too much in line with the essence of long-distance running. In the three years of high school, when many students were resistant, the school's circular playground could see Zhu Zhengdong's figure every day, and later he always brought this habit to his work, because long-distance running allowed him to experience the value of persistence. As Zhu Zhengdong said: "I believe in the power of faith, and any great achievement comes from the persistence of the heart without hesitation!" "Long-distance running requires faith and persistence, and running a business is not the case." Nowadays, Zhu Zhengdong has deeply integrated this concept and spirit of marathon into the blood of Zhengbao distance education, making it an "adult" with a marathon physique.

The 21-year-old Zhengbao distance education is still full of vitality and is a teenager

Some people say that Zhu Zhengdong is like a craftsman, and he has an "ingenuity" in doing Zhengbao education. And he himself admits that no matter how the external world changes over the years, the "good recipe" he uses to combat this challenge is persistence, that is, to carve the company with an ingenuity and all the educational products of the company. However, if only relying on "ingenuity", Zhengbao distance education may only be able to do fine and deep, and may not be able to become bigger and stronger. Behind today's success, it is inseparable from its continuous advancement with the times and challenge itself.

Time says it all. Only compared with the two giants of the education industry, it can be seen that New Oriental, which was established in 1993, continued the glory of offline training around 2000, and the emergence of New Oriental Online was in 2005, marking the "big brother" of the education industry officially began to enter online education. Another well-known educational institution, Xueersi, was established in 2003 and initially engaged in offline training business. For the first year of online education in the true sense of 2013, 2000 is too far away, and the people who dared to try online education at that time were undoubtedly brave enough to accept new things and constantly forge ahead, and Zhu Zhengdong's body has such characteristics, which may be the fundamental reason why he led Zhengbao distance education to continue to grow and develop and stand in an invincible position.

As an online education institution, Zhengbao distance education has always kept up with the development of technology and walked in the forefront of technological development. As a technical support partner of the "National Alliance for the Co-construction and Sharing of Basic Education Resources", as early as August 2013, Zhengbao cooperated with the Renmin University Affiliated Middle School to jointly establish a "dual-teacher teaching platform", using the network to synchronize the high-quality courses of the Joint School of the Renmin University Affiliated Middle School to live broadcast or record broadcast to primary and secondary schools in contiguous poverty-stricken areas across the country where educational resources are relatively backward. Zhengbao Education also used years of educational experience and technology to achieve a high level of sharing and remote collaborative teaching of a number of high-quality primary and secondary school education resources by means of network live broadcasting, recording and broadcasting, which was an innovative teaching mode at that time, and it was also completely public welfare. In terms of adult education, Zhengbao Education enables books, teaching materials and courseware to better meet the needs of mobile reading and meet the needs of adult fragmented learning through technology empowerment.

With the country's adoption of blockchain as a strategic technology, Zhengbao distance education has also been actively exploring the application of blockchain in the field of vocational education in recent years, and has achieved phased results. Based on blockchain technology, Zhengbao Self-examination 365 Online School launches a self-study examination network assistance platform jointly built with colleges and universities, using blockchain technology to achieve the recording and certification of the process assessment results of higher education self-study examinations, and is committed to realizing the online management of the whole course of continuing education, electronic certificate certification of achievements, creating a real continuing education information management platform for colleges and universities, providing reliable data support for individual career planning, and promoting learners, schools and employers to share data on the learning process and learning certification. The "vocational ability chain" launched by Zhengbao takes the user's ability as the core and makes a strong endorsement for the user's credit report, employment, learning, qualification certificate and other information, and helps personal career development. Link100 Vocational Ability Chain has obtained the first batch of domestic blockchain information service filing numbers in 2019, which is at the forefront of the industry.

In the context of globalization, the integration of education with international standards has become an inevitable trend. In 2009, Zhengbao Distance Education set up an international business department, introduced CPA, ACCA and other international top accounting certificate system education programs, and also jointly developed courses with becker Education Group (one of the largest accounting education groups in North America). In the staff and faculty structure of the International Business Department, overseas students and graduate students account for the main body, accounting for more than 70%. At present, Zhengbao Distance Education still cooperates with many well-known international education groups, and introduces teaching concepts and projects from international top universities such as Harvard and the University of Chicago. At the same time, Zhengbao also continues to absorb the advantages of integrating overseas projects to provide more, better and more suitable products and services for Chinese students.

Zhengbao distance education also actively responds to the national policy call and actively explores new educational models. In April 2019, the Ministry of Education and other departments jointly issued the "Pilot Program on the Implementation of the "Academic Certificate + Several Vocational Skill Level Certificates" System in Colleges and Universities", deployed and launched the pilot work of the "Academic Certificate + Several Vocational Skill Level Certificates" (referred to as "1 + X Certificates") system, explored the construction of a national "credit bank" for vocational education, and certified, accumulated and converted the learning achievements embodied in academic certificates and vocational skill level certificates. In December 2020, Zhengbao Education, together with many colleges and universities and industry-leading enterprises, jointly drafted and developed the "Application of Government Finance and Accounting Robots" and "Enterprise Management Consulting" and was selected as the fourth batch of vocational skill level certificates. In January 2020, Zhengbao Distance Education was successfully selected as the third batch of "1+X Certificate" pilot units of the Ministry of Education, launched the "Financial Shared Service Vocational Skill Level Certificate", fully participated in the certificate pilot work, and was committed to helping colleges and universities better grasp the trend of industry change and cultivate talents for the needs of enterprises under the new finance and new model.

Although Zhengbao distance education has gone through 21 years of development, it is no longer ignorant and green, more mature and stable, and has become a veritable leading institution in domestic vocational education. But on the way forward, it still maintains the curiosity of a teenager and a never-ending enterprising spirit, the courage to explore new technical means, and constantly open up unknown areas. From this point of view, Zhengbao distance education is still vigorous, just a teenager.

The prospects of vocational education are brighter, and Zhengbao distance education, which likes "long-distance running", has always been on the road

There is a song whose lyrics say well, how to see a rainbow without experiencing wind and rain. In the 21 years since the establishment of Zhengbao distance education, Zhu Zhengdong does not know how many storms he has experienced, although the future may not always be sunny, but the state's great attention and strong support for vocational education has allowed him to see the brilliant and colorful rainbow after the rain and the sun.

In recent years, various favorable policies related to the development of vocational education have emerged in an endless stream. Taking the latest Regulations on the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Private Education (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Regulations") promulgated on May 14 as an example, the "Implementation Regulations" clearly define the policy of encouraging enterprises to hold or participate in the organization of vocational education, proposing that "the state encourages enterprises to organize or participate in the establishment of private schools that implement vocational education in accordance with the law by means of sole proprietorship, joint venture, cooperation and so on." In addition, the "Implementation Regulations" also give clear legal support for private vocational education and public-private cooperation in vocational education, including greater autonomy in teaching, greater autonomy in enrollment, and greater autonomy in teacher management. The introduction of these directives and policies has brought greater "blessings" to institutions such as Zhengbao distance education that have always focused on vocational education and services and have continuously worked hard to improve the skill level of vocational college students.

In fact, since 2015, Zhengbao distance education has carried out school-enterprise cooperation for vocational colleges and universities to integrate production, education and research; until the landing of the "1+ X" project last year, Zhengbao has always explored a new path for vocational education talent training with colleges and universities. At present, in the "1+X" project of Zhengbao distance education, there are nearly 800 pilot institutions in the country with vocational skill level certificates for financial shared services, 15,000 teachers participating in training, and about 120,000 pilot students. In addition, the pilot work of RPA financial robot and enterprise management consulting vocational skill level certificate was also fully launched in April this year. In 2020, about 40,000 students across the country have passed the "1+X Certificate" exam for Zhengbao Distance Education, obtained a certificate of vocational skill level in financial shared services, and have internship and employment opportunities.

With the blessing of the policy, what is displayed in front of the zhengbao people is a broad road with a brighter future. As an educational institution with distance vocational education as the core, it continues to exert its existing advantages and use science and technology to empower education, and zhengbao education is always on the road. The half marathon celebration full of ceremony is like a clarion call for Zhu Zhengdong to continue to move forward for Zhengbao, which reminds employees to be persistent and never stop on this track of cultivating professional talents for the country.

He is not only using the marathon to spur employees, but also an active practitioner himself. For Zhu Zhengdong, who loves marathons, he has the deepest feelings and experiences of this sport. He once said that 42 kilometers is a long track for marathon runners, and at first it may feel relaxed, exciting and full of confidence; but when you run to 30 kilometers or so, you will feel that your legs are not listening, your body is reaching its limit, and your heart is full of despair and the idea of giving up. But as long as you stick to it and survive this stage, you are not far from the end. And when you successfully run 1 marathon, you will think about trying to achieve better results next time. Therefore, marathon runners enjoy this process of overcoming difficulties and the sense of achievement brought about by overcoming challenges; this is also the meaning of marathon sports, that is, it is not about running, but more importantly, challenging themselves, surpassing limits, perseverance, and never giving up.

In Zhu Zhengdong's view, doing business should be like running a marathon, not giving up easily, and constantly surpassing itself. He said he did, and this marathon spirit is now deeply integrated into the corporate culture of Zhengbao distance education. It is precisely by relying on this persistent belief and the courage to overcome difficulties that Zhengbao distance education has come to tomorrow and will continue to open up a better future.