The State Council of the People's Republic of China has issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for Education Development, which lays out measures to accelerate the building of a modern vocational education system and cultivate highly-skilled talent.
Under the plan, China will promote articulation among secondary vocational education, higher vocational education, and vocational undergraduate education, while steadily expanding the number of vocational undergraduate institutions and their enrollment. Regions with suitable conditions are encouraged to extend higher vocational education resources to the city and county levels.
The plan calls for maintaining a select number of high-quality secondary vocational schools, deepening integration between vocational and general education, and broadening pathways for student development. It also promotes the convergence of vocational undergraduate education and professional degree education.
On industry-education integration, the plan aims to deepen reform of provincial-level modern vocational education systems and support leading enterprises in running or participating in vocational schools.
Specific targets include: establishing around 100 national city-level industry-education consortia and around 20 national industry-specific industry-education communities; building 200 industry-education integrated practice bases and around 20 future-oriented practice centers in key areas; and supporting a number of high-level vocational colleges in upgrading their advanced training equipment.
In terms of institutional and program development, the plan sets goals of building about 60 high-level higher vocational colleges and 160 high-level specialty clusters, with continued focus on key industrial chains, the intelligent economy, and international economic and trade cooperation. Additionally, it calls for developing a group of high-level vocational undergraduate schools with distinctive features, a cohort of quality secondary vocational schools and specialties, and cultivating a batch of high-quality technician colleges and 100 quality specialties.
The plan emphasizes aligning vocational education program offerings closely with the needs of industrial and innovation chains, implementing cluster-based training programs for highly-skilled talent in key areas, and cultivating a corps of highly-skilled personnel capable of providing overseas services and supporting enterprises' global expansion.