New occupations outline a new picture of industrial leap

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Economic Information Daily published an article on June 28 titled "Sketching a New Picture of Industrial Transition to "Digital", "New", and "Green" New Occupations. According to the article, the release of batches of new occupations reflects the cutting-edge needs of society and the market, and has also become an important vane for observing the mainland's economic development and industrial leap. A few days ago, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced to the public that it plans to add another batch of 19 new occupations such as bioengineering technicians, network anchors, and cloud-network intelligent operation and maintenance personnel. It is not difficult to find that a number of new occupations released in the past five years have become a new trend of industrial leap in the mainland.

More "digital": industrial digitalization is deepening and solidifying

Nowadays, more and more traditional industries are accelerating their digital transformation. To promote the industry from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing", a number of new occupations related to this came into being.

The industrial Internet is a strong support for the digital transformation of traditional industries, and "industrial Internet engineering and technical personnel" is one of the new occupations released in February 2020.

"Now the demand for digital transformation of traditional industries is very strong, and we have to iteratively develop new applications and new products every half a month or month." Li Jiajin is an industrial Internet engineer and technician, and his work includes network architecture application design, intelligent perception layer development, and hardware integration, so as to connect tens of thousands of high-level intelligent applications through an industrial Internet. He told reporters that it is his duty to make the equipment of industrial enterprises "connected", the production process "clear", and the safety management "accurate". In recent months, he has traveled to many provinces, stationed in the production workshop, and worked with the company's technical administrators and front-line workers to find out the doubts and difficulties in the process of using "cloud" and "data" in the enterprise.

Whether it is a "data engineering technician" engaged in the research of big data collection, cleaning, analysis, governance, mining and other technologies, and the utilization, management, maintenance and service of "data engineering technicians", or "digital managers" who provide human resources guarantee for the implementation of enterprise digital transformation plans, the development and growth of these new digital occupations announced since 2019 reflect the continuous deepening and solidification of industrial digitalization in mainland China. According to the Digital China Development Report (2023), the added value of the core industries of the mainland's digital economy will account for 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023. A total of 62 "lighthouse factories" have been built, accounting for 40% of the global total.

"If the recruitment scale in 2019 is considered as 1, then by 2022, the recruitment scale of digital twin application technicians will rise to 12.9, the recruitment scale of digital solution designers will rise to 5.2, and the recruitment scale of database operation administrators will rise to 2.3." Li Qiang, vice president of Zhaopin, said. Industry insiders believe that for most enterprises today, digital and intelligent transformation is not a choice question, but a must question related to survival and development. Under this development trend, digital talents have become the backbone of driving the digitalization of mainland industries.

More "new": the rapid rise of new technologies and new industries

From "industrial robot system operator", "virtual reality engineering and technical personnel", to "blockchain engineering and technical personnel", "service robot application technician", and then to the new "intelligent networked vehicle tester" and "generative artificial intelligence system application" to be added this year, these new occupations also reflect the rapid development of many new technologies and the rapid rise of new industries.

"Service Robot Application Technician" is one of the new occupations released in 2021. "'Service robot application technician' is directly responsible for the demand feedback, application and promotion of service robots, and needs to master robots and information technology at the same time, which is an important demand for talents for the development of the service robot industry, and the emergence of this new profession also confirms the rapid development of the robot industry." Li Quanyin, one of the drafters who participated in the "Service Robot Application Technician Specification" standard and chief product officer of Yunji Technology, said that from the initial industrial automation to today's service robots, medical assistance robots, etc., the application scope of robots has been expanding and the functions are becoming more and more powerful. According to estimates, there is currently a talent demand of 7.5 million in China's robot industry, and the gap has reached 3 million.

"ICV testers" are personnel who use tools, measuring tools, testing instruments and equipment to verify and test the functions of ICVs and their related components. This year's proposed addition of this new profession also confirms the rapid development of the domestic new energy vehicle industry and the acceleration of intelligent networked vehicles. According to the data, the L2 penetration rate of passenger cars in mainland China will reach 47.3% in 2023 and exceed 50% from January to May 2024. According to Zhaopin's recruitment data, in 2023, the number of job openings in the new energy vehicle business field will increase by 32% year-on-year. From the perspective of the recruitment demand for subdivided positions under the vehicle software R&D positions, the number of recruitment positions for intelligent driving system engineers and embedded software development accounts for a relatively high proportion, 13% and 9.8% respectively.

Li Qiang said that new occupations often represent the development direction of new technologies and industries, requiring practitioners to have continuous learning ability and innovation ability. This improvement of ability will help the competition and development of enterprises, and will also promote further innovation and upgrading of the industry.

More "green": the green engine of industrial transformation is strong

"Carbon emission managers", "building energy conservation and emission reduction consultants", "comprehensive energy service personnel", etc. are all called "green occupations". The emergence of batches of "green" new occupations reflects the in-depth practice of the "dual carbon" goal, and also reflects the transformation trend of the industry to "green" development.

In Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, Yang Zhenqiang, a building energy conservation and emission reduction consultant, is making suggestions for the energy conservation and emission reduction renovation project of a tertiary hospital. "I propose to reduce the energy consumption of the building by insulating the exterior walls, replacing doors and windows, and building an energy and carbon management platform, which is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 820 tons per year after the renovation is completed."

"Building Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Consultant" is one of the 18 new occupations announced by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of Chinese in 2022, whose job is to use energy conservation and emission reduction technologies to evaluate, adjust, and renovate buildings and their environments. "The scale of the building stock and increment is very large, the market prospect is broad, and I am extremely proud to be able to contribute to energy conservation and emission reduction." Yang Zhenqiang said that this new profession is bursting with vitality due to the timing of the green transformation of the industry, providing professional support and a source of innovation for the construction industry to achieve low carbon.

Promoting the development of the industry to "green" is inseparable from the support of relevant talents. Industry experts believe that in order to achieve the "double carbon" goal, China is accelerating the adjustment of industrial structure and energy structure, vigorously developing renewable energy, promoting green and low-carbon technology innovation, and establishing a carbon emission trading market.

According to the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, the number of "dual carbon" talents needed by the mainland during the 14th Five-Year Plan period is about 550,000 to 1 million. In the future, it is expected that batches of "green" new occupations will resonate with the "dual carbon" strategy at the same frequency and activate the green engine of industrial transformation. (Reporter Zhang Mo, Chen Hanyang, Ma Zhiyi, intern Zhou Runkai)

Source: Xinhua News Agency