It is the 2024 college entrance examination volunteer filling season. On June 21, the Ministry of Education released the latest list of national colleges and universities, in which the number of officially approved vocational undergraduate colleges has reached 51, including 23 private and 28 public colleges. A little more than a month ago, the Ministry of Education agreed to open 16 new vocational colleges, most of which will open nationwide enrollment this year.
Vocational undergraduate education, which was launched on a pilot basis in 2019, is an emerging thing. Vocational bachelor's degree graduates can obtain a degree certificate with the same validity as a regular bachelor's degree. However, at the same time, vocational undergraduates are also facing long-standing problems in the field of vocational education, such as low social recognition and insufficient integration of industry and education.
What changes will the emergence of vocational bachelor's degree bring to China's vocational education system? What are the challenges in running a school? How to realize the effective integration of vocational education "secondary vocational-higher vocational-undergraduate"? What experiences can be learned from the development of vocational education abroad? Kuang Ying, a professor at the Institute of Vocational Education and Adult Education of East China Normal University, has long studied vocational education at home and abroad. Recently, in response to these problems, she accepted an exclusive interview with China News Weekly.
Kuang Ying. Photo / provided by the interviewee
"It can be both hands-on and dispatching and commanding,
and innovation"
China News Weekly: Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Education has agreed to add a number of vocational undergraduate schools, with 16 new ones added in May alone. At present, there are more than 50 vocational undergraduate colleges in China. What do you think of the current pace of development of vocational undergraduates?
Kuang Ying: The National Vocational Education Conference held in 2021 has a basic plan for vocational undergraduates, proposing the steady development of vocational undergraduate education. According to the "Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Vocational Education" issued by the Office of the Central Committee and the Office of the State Council in 2021, by 2025, the enrollment scale of vocational undergraduate education will not be less than 10% of the enrollment scale of higher vocational education.
Vocational colleges need to be declared by the school and accepted by the Ministry of Education before they can be passed. In the past few years, due to the impact of the epidemic and other factors, related work has been delayed. Recently, the Ministry of Education agreed to add 16 vocational undergraduate schools, which is a normal progress and in line with the plan for steady development.
China News Weekly: What should be the ideal training model for vocational undergraduate students?
In June 2020, the former Nanjing Vocational and Technical College of Industry was officially renamed Nanjing University of Industry and Technology, and since then, more public colleges and universities have been approved as vocational undergraduates. Especially in the past two years, after a number of colleges and universities have been upgraded to the "Double High Plan" (i.e., high-level vocational schools and professional construction plans with Chinese characteristics), the cultivation of talents in vocational undergraduates has become more and more in line with our expectations.
For example, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, the "leading" university of vocational undergraduates in China, has a very in-depth integration of industry and education. The ideal integration of industry and education, the cultivation of industrial intervention talents should start from the source, not just in the final internship and training stage.
Among the vocational undergraduate colleges we have investigated, some companies have begun to participate in the demonstration from the time of professional setting. Because the professional setting will involve professional positioning, the connotation of each school major is different, for example, it is also called big data major, and it is likely that the subdivision direction is different.
Next, both schools and enterprises should clarify the vocational abilities that students need to learn in four years, build a curriculum system and develop teaching materials on this basis. For example, which courses should be set up in the school, which teaching links should be completed through internships, how university teachers and enterprise teams should cooperate, which projects should be embedded in the curriculum, which projects should be completely real, and which should be redesigned according to the teaching rules, all of which need to be discussed by both the school and the enterprise.
In some vocational colleges, corporate tutors and school teachers will enter the classroom at the same time to achieve a seamless connection between theory and practice. Because companies are well aware of what is taught in schools and to what extent, they can be more clear about what skills they should train students in actual positions. This approach is integrated and in line with the company's expectations.
China News Weekly: When we talked to some business people, we found that at present, they prefer junior college students with strong hands-on ability, or ordinary undergraduate students who are more familiar to the public. Vocational undergraduates seem to be in an awkward position, what do you think about that?
Kuang Ying: Vocational bachelor's degree is a new thing, and everyone may be familiar with it in the education industry, but for the market, the first batch of four-year vocational undergraduate graduates only appeared last year, and there are still very few students who really enter the market.
We once asked companies in our survey, and they are not opposed to the emergence of this type of education, but they expect a difference between vocational bachelor's degree and higher vocational. Vocational undergraduate students should have stronger comprehensive ability in thinking, judgment and other aspects than vocational students. Enterprises expect vocational undergraduate students to be hands-on, dispatching and commanding, and innovative. This kind of talent must not be cultivated according to the traditional training method of higher vocational or ordinary undergraduates, and the uniqueness of vocational undergraduate students lies here.
China News Weekly: For many vocational undergraduate colleges, not all majors can achieve the ideal school-enterprise cooperation. On a larger scale, vocational education is still facing the status quo of "hot schools and cold enterprises". What advice do you have for this?
Kuang Ying: At present, there are some good explorations. Some vocational undergraduate colleges will ask the person in charge of the enterprise to serve as the dean of the secondary college of the school, and all the matters related to the training of students are related to the enterprise, and the equipment and manpower are also easier to deploy, which solves the problem from the mechanism.
But the core factor is also the teachers in the school. If the skills of the school teachers are matched with the enterprise and can solve the practical technical problems for the enterprise, the cooperation between the school and the enterprise can be hopeful. Vocational colleges still focus on helping enterprises achieve technological iteration and innovation, which is not the original innovation from 0 to 1, but from 1 to 2, 3. When enterprises are dependent on schools, the integration of industry and education and school-enterprise cooperation will be more effective. We can't afford to let companies only take responsibility and simply train talent for schools, which is not sustainable.
On June 16, Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Province Food and Drug Industry and Jiangsu Food and Drug Vocational and Technical College Graduates Special Job Fair was held in the school, 299 companies provide catering, construction and real estate, machinery manufacturing, finance, graphic design, trade and other fields of nearly 10,000 popular jobs, attracting many fresh college graduates. Photo/Visual China
"The last mile of college students' employment,
Can be done by vocational education"
China News Weekly: Vocational undergraduates have certain requirements for the proportion of doctoral teachers, but some people are worried about whether doctors can cultivate high-skilled talents, what do you think about this?
Kuang Ying: There are big differences between universities in different places. One of the indicators that vocational colleges need to meet after upgrading their capital is the proportion of doctoral teachers in teachers. But to tell the truth, some newly recruited doctors from vocational undergraduates may not have strong ability in industrial technology development, after all, they are from colleges and universities, and they don't have much to do with enterprises. It cannot be said that having a doctorate degree will definitely solve the problem. However, PhDs have advantages, and the school needs to think about how to create an ecosystem for technology research and development for newly introduced PhDs.
China News Weekly: What are your specific suggestions for the evaluation of vocational undergraduates, which is a big problem in the development process of vocational undergraduates?
Kuang Ying: For the evaluation of vocational undergraduate colleges, it is not just a matter of the proportion of doctors, it is only a bottom-line requirement. Until now, the evaluation system for vocational undergraduates has not been well established. In the whole evaluation system, the weight of talent training, social service, technological innovation and other aspects should be different from other types of universities, which determines the development orientation of the school. The evaluation of vocational undergraduate colleges should keep up as soon as possible, otherwise, I am very worried that some vocational undergraduates will "drift academically" and "drift" into the same mold as ordinary universities.
As far as vocational undergraduate evaluation is concerned, first of all, the quality of talent training is a very important indicator. Vocational bachelor's degree belongs to a type of school that emphasizes practical teaching, so the weight of this area should be much higher than that of comprehensive universities.
Secondly, in terms of enterprise services, vocational undergraduate colleges should realize the innovation and iteration of technology and technology, and the service objects should be small and micro enterprises in addition to large and medium-sized enterprises. Small and micro enterprises often lack the ability of technology research and development, if the vocational undergraduate can help enterprises to innovate, complete some iterations of the corresponding technology, for enterprises and colleges, it is a win-win thing, this proportion should be increased.
In Germany, for example, cross-company training centers are an important part of the vocational education system, which collects the needs of several small and medium-sized enterprises and helps them to meet them in the corresponding schools.
However, in the process of establishing the industry-education consortium now, many times we are focusing on the head enterprises. We have also done research in the institute, and in the process of cooperation between leading enterprises and vocational colleges, they can not play much role, because there is a certain gap between the technical research and development capabilities they require and vocational colleges, and they need Tsinghua University, Peking University and other universities more often. Relatively speaking, it is still small and medium-sized enterprises that can give substantial help to schools and truly participate in the process of talent training.
Another element of the assessment is social services. Vocational bachelor's degree is not only to train pre-employment students, but also to provide training for in-service employees of enterprises. Nowadays, the industrial transformation is accelerating, and enterprise employees need to improve and reskill, which is also a very big difference between vocational undergraduates and ordinary universities.
We also have an expectation that the most important feature of vocational education is that it is closely linked to employment and closely interacted with enterprises. Nowadays, the employment situation of college students is very serious, can these students go to vocational undergraduates to study some practical courses, obtain some skill certificates and then go to work? The last mile of college students' employment can be completed by the relay of vocational undergraduates. However, there are relatively many vocational schools in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions, and fewer in the central and western regions, which is related to the industrial layout.
"Some schools are reluctant to push out of their comfort zone"
China News Weekly: In the face of new technologies and new changes in the labor market, what are the explorations of foreign vocational education at the undergraduate level, and how to encourage enterprises to actively participate in school-enterprise cooperation?
Kuang Ying: Taking Germany as an example, Germany also has high-level talent training, including universities of applied sciences and dual universities.
Universities of applied sciences originated from colleges and universities, and are the "cradle" of German engineers, 90% of German engineers have graduated from such schools, and the public has a high evaluation. They account for around half of Germany's higher education system. In terms of industrial transformation and upgrading, the application-oriented professional and technical talents cultivated by the University of Applied Sciences have a very high degree of matching with the needs of the industry.
The other type is the dual university, which was first established in 2009 in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The predecessor of the dual university was the vocational college, which originated in the 70s of the 20th century. The background of the establishment of the vocational college is very distinctive, not led by the government, but well-known enterprises such as Mercedes-Benz and Bosch found that the reserve industrial talents they needed could not be cultivated under the existing education system, and took the initiative to jointly run schools with the government. With the digitalization and intelligent upgrading, enterprises need interdisciplinary innovative and compound talents, therefore, vocational colleges have been upgraded to dual universities. Germany's dual universities have always followed the needs of the industry, and companies have a great say.
China News Weekly: In Germany, in addition to the internal motivation of enterprises to cultivate talents, what are the design and guarantees at the institutional level?
Kuang Ying: In 1969, Germany implemented the Vocational Education Act, which set out very detailed and strict regulations on the responsibilities, obligations and rights of enterprises to participate in vocational education. For example, what kind of qualifications can enterprises participate in school-enterprise cooperation, which occupations are suitable for the dual education model, what qualifications should be required for training teachers, and the rights and interests of students in practice, etc., the violation of the regulations will constitute a violation of the law.
In addition to the mandatory legislative framework, the German Vocational Education Act is harmonized with relevant laws such as the Teacher Qualification Ordinance and the protection of young people.
In Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries, many enterprises have a history of hundreds of years of development, but China's private enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, do not have a long average life expectancy, and are currently more concerned about survival than from the perspective of long-term human resource supply. This can't all be blamed on enterprises, the problem of "hot and cold" in school-enterprise cooperation is staged.
In the process of research, I also saw that some companies are very active in moving closer to vocational schools, but some schools are reluctant to break out of their comfort zone, because the needs of enterprises are very flexible, and if schools keep up with the pace of enterprises, they will break the tradition. For example, some cultural tourism enterprises have a peak season in the summer vacation, and they hope that teachers can participate in the development of customized travel itineraries, but not all teachers are willing to give up their summer vacation. The responsibility of school-enterprise cooperation belongs to both parties, and this should be a two-way process.
At this stage, we can also optimize at the legal and institutional level. For example, Germany and the United Kingdom will have institutions similar to national apprenticeship service centers, which are called differently in different countries, but the work content is to match the needs of schools and enterprises, and there is clear institutional support. However, the school-enterprise cooperation and the integration of industry and education explored in China are more about exploring a talent training model. At present, the newly revised Vocational Education Law also proposes to implement an apprenticeship system with Chinese characteristics, and we need to work in this direction in the future.
"Vocational education is not universal education eating vocational education"
China News Weekly: The vocational education college entrance examination is an important channel for secondary vocational students to go on to higher education, and all places are exploring, what do you think of the current situation and challenges of the implementation of the vocational education college entrance examination?
Kuang Ying: Now that various places have begun to implement the vocational education college entrance examination, it is a breakthrough in itself. Secondary vocational students can pass the vocational education college entrance examination and enter the higher vocational or vocational undergraduate.
The vocational education college entrance examination includes the examination of cultural quality and vocational skills, but in the process of development, we are still affected by inertial thinking, and we still recruit students mainly in cultural courses, and the proportion of skill examination is not very high, and there is still a certain gap with our expectations for the vocational education college entrance examination.
There are many challenges in the vocational education college entrance examination, and the situation is not quite different in different places. But one major problem is the difficulty of organizing the exam. Even according to the professional categories, vocational education has 19 categories, if it is only a cultural course examination, the difficulty of organization will be much smaller, but the actual operation of vocational skills to be examined, to involve standardized examination rooms, equipment uniformity and other issues, relatively speaking, the cost is higher.
In Jiangsu and other places, secondary vocational schools will organize and carry out academic proficiency examinations to test the public basic knowledge, professional basic theories and professional basic skills of secondary vocational students. Some examination rooms have been set up for the examination of basic professional skills. In the future, vocational college entrance examinations in some places can be carried out in these examination rooms. In addition, if the vocational education college entrance examination and the human resources and social security department skill level examination can share the examination room, the problem of examination room standardization can also be further solved.
The provincial education departments do not attach special importance to the vocational education college entrance examination. In the process of reforming the admissions examination, the first thing to consider is whether it is possible to produce more increments due to the reform, such as increasing the admission rate of "double first-class" universities. The vocational education college entrance examination is obviously unable to achieve this goal.
China News Weekly: Whether it is the vocational education college entrance examination or vocational undergraduate, they are breaking through the "ceiling" of the original vocational education.
Kuang Ying: After the integrated training of technical and skilled talents, it should be integrated in terms of training objectives, curriculum system, teaching staff, training equipment, and integration of production and education. In reality, we find that many of the current courses in secondary vocational, higher vocational and vocational undergraduate courses are duplicated.
The construction of integrated curriculum standards and curriculum system is a systematic problem. Taking Shanghai as an example, Shanghai has been exploring the training of middle and higher vocational education since 2010, and has gradually extended a variety of practice models such as the middle and high school and the five-year and seven-year systems.
In the process of demonstration of curriculum construction, the connection points of courses offered by secondary vocational and higher vocational schools should be very clear. We will also conduct an analysis of students' vocational abilities, which vocational abilities students need to have at the secondary vocational, higher vocational and undergraduate levels, and teachers at the higher education stage will also participate in the teaching design of secondary vocational education. Under such a coherent school system, students who have been promoted from secondary vocational education will not have worse ability performance than ordinary high school graduates.
In Shanghai, the number of students who choose secondary and higher vocational schools now accounts for 60%-70% of all secondary vocational students. There is no problem with secondary vocational education focusing on further education, but if it is purposeful, it should be further education.
China News Weekly: From the perspective of horizontal integration, you have studied the integration model of vocational education and general education in Germany, the United States, Singapore and other countries.
Kuang Ying: There are three mainstream models of vocational and general education in the world. The first is to infiltrate the curriculum under the premise of the "dual-track system", and the representative country is Germany. In Germany, vocational education and general education are relatively independent, and the curriculum and extracurricular activities of vocational education have penetrated into general education.
For example, there are liberal arts secondary schools in Germany, which are similar to our ordinary high schools and are oriented towards higher education. In the second year of high school, they will open some vocational and life "specialty courses", and students can study mechanical processing, electronic technology, home economics and other courses. The school will also add some labor content to the subject teaching, increase students' understanding of the future labor market, cooperate with local enterprises and factories to carry out career experience activities, and will also provide students with future career planning services, and this trend has also spread to comprehensive middle schools.
Singapore is the second one, which gives students more educational options by building multiple channels. Similar to China, Singapore is influenced by Confucian culture, and the public is not very optimistic about vocational education. Therefore, in the design of the system, the label of general occupation was diluted. In the past, they divided the types of education into three types, fast track, ordinary (academic) channel, ordinary (vocational) channel, and later they carried out reforms, the courses of these three types of education, according to G1, G2, G3 division, students have no distinction between high and low types of different types, according to their interests and aspirations, or learning ability to choose courses freely, and can achieve two-way communication.
The U.S. is the third model – total integration. The "single-track system" implemented in the United States, there is no difference in the teaching system between vocational and general education, whether it is its comprehensive middle school, comprehensive university, or community college of higher education, the general vocational school is integrated, and through the provision of rich and diverse courses, students can achieve natural diversion in the selection process. In order to increase the comprehensive curriculum, comprehensive high schools in the United States also focus on setting up some information technology and engineering technology courses. High schools in the United States also have career guidance teachers who guide students to find the type of education that suits them.
China and Germany are both "dual-track" countries with vocational and general education, but from the perspective of integration power, vocational education is not as attractive and acceptable as general education in our country. We also have similar practices for the penetration of vocational courses, but it is a pity that our technical course program has not been done like Germany, with detailed design and strong operability. Singapore's model dilutes the channel setting of the general job label, which is worth learning from. However, the premise is still that the development of vocational education is very mature and perfect.
Vocational and general education is not to say that general education eats vocational education. Since it can be integrated, it shows that vocational education and general education are very strong, so our vocational education must continue to adhere to its type positioning, and if it cannot be run and run, it will become general education. (Published in the 1146th issue of China News Weekly on July 1, 2024)