{"id":10442,"date":"2022-06-24T07:30:42","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T07:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=10442"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:39:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:39:47","slug":"new-vocational-education-law-presents-opportunities-for-british-institutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/new-vocational-education-law-presents-opportunities-for-british-institutions\/","title":{"rendered":"New Vocational Education Law presents opportunities for British institutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

China’s investment in new infrastructure and industrial automation requires skilled technicians, but vocational education has always had a bad rap in the country \u2013 until now. After a recent change to the Vocational Education Law, are there now<\/strong><\/span> new opportunities for UK businesses, <\/strong><\/span>asks <\/strong><\/span>Torsten Weller?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Escaping the dreaded \u2018middle-income trap\u2019 has long been a major concern for Chinese policymakers. Improving education levels is therefore a key policy goal. But while academic enrolment has surged over the last two decades, a more important measure to increase both productivity and income could lie less in top-ranked universities and more in the country\u2019s vocational schools.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Scholars like Stanford\u2019s Scott Rozelle have long pointed out the importance of education for China\u2019s further economic development, and the country\u2019s persistently high unemployment rate for young workers (aged between 16 and 24 years old) creates further pressure to equip young people with essential skills. Furthermore, China\u2019s dramatic demographic decline<\/a> requires a well-educated workforce which can master next-generation technologies while caring for a growing number of the elderly<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With higher academic collaboration under geopolitical fire and online teaching heavily curtailed, vocational training offers a rare opportunity for UK educational institutions to expand their footprint in China<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Chinese government has therefore sped up its drive to improve the quality of its vocational education system, which has long been plagued by high dropout rates and low public prestige. It also revised the country\u2019s Vocational Education Law, raising both its legal status, and encouraging international cooperation and exchange. With higher academic collaboration under geopolitical fire and online teaching heavily curtailed, vocational training offers a rare opportunity for UK educational institutions to expand their footprint in China and participate in one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing education markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The state of vocational education in China<\/h4>\n

Technical and vocational education (TVE) \u2014 which accounts for 41% of total enrolment at upper secondary schools in China \u2014 has long suffered from poor quality and political neglect. It wasn\u2019t until the Chinese government\u2019s ambitious Made in China 2025 Strategy (MIC25) in 2014 that Chinese leaders began to pay greater attention to technical education. After all, MIC25 was modelled closely on Germany\u2019s Industrie 4.0 strategy for the country\u2019s \u2018Mittelstand,\u2019 which traditionally relies on vocational schools rather than universities.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Concomitantly, China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative<\/a> (BRI), launched in 2013, also saw vocational education as a potent field for global cooperation, including with the UK. In 2018, the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) and the UK Skills Federation \u2014 aided by DIT \u2014 set up a UK Sectors\u2019 Centre for Excellence in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Education to promote exchanges between vocational schools in both countries. Several British universities, such as London South Bank University, have also launched exchange programmes with their Chinese counterparts.<\/span><\/p>\n