From being a 'fallback' to first choice

In the early hours of May 10, parents joined long lines outside Beijing Changping Vocational School, with some even arriving the day before, eager to secure an enrollment interview slot for their children. By the afternoon, the school issued a notice declaring that admissions slots were already full — days ahead of schedule.

One parent who had camped out for hours said that if his 15-year-old son learns industrial robotics, he'll have a job waiting for him before he even graduates.

Across China, secondary and higher vocational institutions in manufacturing hubs like Shandong and Guangdong provinces are reporting unprecedented application surges, outstripping available spots.

The intense interest in vocational tracks reflects a shifting economic reality. As China's higher education system produces a record number of university graduates each year, the traditional white-collar job market faces friction. Desk jobs in tech, finance and administration have become fiercely competitive, leaving many young degree-holders underemployed. At the same time, China's push toward high-end manufacturing, robotics and artificial intelligence has created a shortage of skilled technicians.

"The surging popularity of vocational schools in recent years signals a fundamental shift in how Chinese society views skills-based education," said Wang Heye, founder of Beijing-based Liangyou Education, a consultancy specializing in vocational education.

For years, vocational education was often seen as a fallback option for underperforming students, but nowadays it is increasingly viewed as a viable and promising pathway to a successful career, Wang said, noting that he has witnessed the change firsthand.

He attributed the turnaround to a combination of robust policy support, industrial development, market demand for high-skilled talents, bright prospects for further education and jobs, and evolving public attitudes.

According to a 2025 report released by the Ministry of Education earlier this month, China has some 8,382 vocational institutions, including 6,741 secondary vocational schools, 1,554 vocational colleges and 87 vocational undergraduate universities. The total number of students enrolled in vocational institutions reached 29.37 million, the report said.

In late June, the State Council, China's Cabinet, released an outline plan for the development of the education sector during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), which made building a modern vocational education system a key priority.

The plan underscores the need to build more high-level vocational schools and programs to cultivate large numbers of high-skilled talents. Specifically, it aims to establish around 60 high-level higher vocational institutions and 160 high-level program clusters, with continuous efforts aligned with key industrial chains, the intelligent economy, and international economic and trade cooperation.

Li Chunqin, vice-principal of Rizhao City Science and Technology School in Shandong province, said that the policy document marks a pivotal transition for vocational education in China, signaling a new era where quality takes precedence over sheer scale.

"Rather than merely pursuing enrollment and program numbers, vocational schools should now focus on improving their educational capabilities and forging solid industry-education integration," Li said. He urged vocational schools to carve out their own niches and strengthen their core advantages.

For students, Li said the plan promises a more flexible and robust growth trajectory, as it advocates for seamless pathways connecting secondary vocational schools with vocational colleges and universities. Noting that his school enrolls nearly 1,000 students each year in its five-year secondary-to-higher vocational programs, he said that secondary vocational education, once seen as "a dead end", has now become "an expressway" for talent cultivation.

Li said he also sees the plan as a crucial step for promoting balanced resource distribution and serving local economies and regional industrial development, highlighting its push to channel higher vocational education resources to counties and smaller cities.

"High-quality vocational resources have long been concentrated in major cities, leaving a structural gap between the demand and supply of skilled talent at the county level," he said. "Bringing those resources down to counties will offer students access to quality vocational education at their doorstep and provide local businesses with talent nearby."

Zhou Zhemin, director of the Academic Affairs Office at Hunan Industry Polytechnic in Hunan's provincial capital Changsha, said the plan's call to steadily increase the number of vocational undergraduate institutions and expand enrollment will help forge a better-structured vocational education system.

Zhou dismissed concerns that expanding vocational undergraduate education would squeeze out vocational colleges, noting that the two have distinctly different training objectives. Vocational colleges focus on cultivating practical talents who can solve on-the-ground problems, while vocational undergraduate programs aim to produce technical and skilled professionals with innovation capabilities, he said.

"Over the next five years, vocational education is set for a deep overhaul in how we cultivate talent — shifting from teaching what schools have to teaching what the industry demands," he said.

Emphasizing deeper integration between vocational education and industrial needs, the outline plan sets out concrete measures, such as building around 100 industry-education alliances in various cities and about 20 national industry-education communities focused on specific industries, with support pledged to set up more training bases and centers and to upgrade training facilities.

Peng Fang, deputy general manager of China Construction Steel Structure Testing Technology Co, said many people used to assume that industry-education integration simply meant students doing a six-month internship before graduation, or agreements signed between schools and enterprises. "Such superficial collaboration can no longer meet the demands of today's industries," she said.

Peng added that schools used to design their programs and courses behind closed doors, while enterprises struggled to find qualified and capable talent. "Companies often receive graduates with little practical experience and have to invest heavily in training them from scratch," she said.

"Industry-education integration is not just about internships. It requires a systemic, whole-chain restructuring covering program design, curriculum reform, faculty deployment and training arrangements," Peng said.

Liu Dingding, deputy head of the industry-education integration department at Beijing Freedo Technology Co, said that the outline plan sets out concrete, measurable targets for boosting such integration, calling for solid progress.

Liu said his team acts as a bridge between schools and enterprises, filling gaps between talent cultivation programs and real needs. His team has launched integrated training programs and helped shorten the onboarding period for graduates at enterprises from six months to just two months, he added.

Over the past five years, Liu said he has witnessed visible changes in the depth of school-enterprise cooperation — from signing agreements and donating equipment, to jointly developing curricula and training programs, as well as offering classes tailored to enterprises' specific demands.

This marks an ever-deepening collaboration, Liu said, adding that policy support has made industry-education integration a key pillar of vocational education.

jihaisheng@chinadaily.com.cn