Fact box

The Chinese government announced in May that it wanted to increase the number of vocational students by a third from 29.34 million to 38.3 million by 2020.

Current number of vocational schools and colleges: 13,600, including 12,000 secondary vocational schools and 1,321 vocational colleges.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), about 80 million students graduated from Chinese vocational schools.

Vocational school graduates now make up more than 70 percent of those going into high-end manufacturing, high-speed rail, urban transport systems, civil aviation, logistics, e-commerce and tourism and information services.

Five million secondary vocational school graduates moved out of rural poverty to better paid jobs in the city in the five years up to 2010.

Across the country, those who graduated from vocational colleges in 2010 on average doubled their salary after working for just three years. About 58 percent were also promoted.

Source: Ministry of Education

(China Daily 09/19/2014 page16)