Development of vocational education should meet current industry needs

THE NUMBER OF APPLICANTS to vocational schools has dropped each year since 2009, while the estimated shortfall of technicians is 22 million nationwide this year. China Youth Daily comments:

Automation has indeed taken over many jobs. But the shortage of technicians who are able to operate, maintain and improve the technologies and equipment has become an increasingly pressing challenge.

Statistics show that the employment rate of graduates from technical schools has been higher than that of college graduates since 2017. Given this and their promising career prospects, it should not have been difficult for the polytechnics to find applicants elbowing their way into the admission offices. But instead, even some well-known technical schools have been struggling to secure sufficient students to fill up their labs.