E-commerce Training Needed for Vocational Education

In the upcoming 5 years， there will be a demand of 3 million E-commerce talents in China， given that about half of over 30 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SEMs) will try to adopt E-commerce. Is vocational education ready for the supply?

“E-commerce is such a fast-growing area and in urgent need of talent and will exert extensive influence on vocational education，” said Ge Daokai， director of Vocational Education Adult Education Department of the Ministry of Education， at the First China’s E-commerce Vocational Education Conference held in Beijing Union University on Dec. 4.

“At present there are over 400 undergraduate colleges and 600 higher vocational colleges which offer E-commerce education. There should be organic interaction between the education reform and the industry development. Still， business people and educators need to strengthen discussion and build an effective joint，” he added.

The Ministry of Education is to enhance cooperation with the industrial department in working out a program for education of E-commerce talent， promoting the personnel training model and the training of professional teachers. It will jointly establish vocational education enterprises， and explore the talent evaluation system. Such deepening reform is expected to provide skilled talents for E-commerce industry.

The ever-growing E-commerce has brought a large sum of job opportunities and a huge amount of social resources. Presently， there are roughly 2.13 million employees working in the field of E-commerce. E-commerce promotes job creation in industries such as logistics， software， conferences and exhibitions， according to the China eBusiness Research Centre.

At this conference the China E-commerce Vocational Education Teaching Committee signed cooperation agreements with 18 companies including Alibaba Group， UFIDA Software， NetEase and eLong， Inc.， to promote the relations between enterprises and schools， such as employing students as interns in the enterprises， establishing bases in the schools for the enterprises.

The Ministry of Education has held conferences to discuss the issue with members of the industry as well as China Electronic Commerce Association， China Higher Education Association， Vocational and Technical Education Center of the Ministry of Education and the Chinese Society of Vocation and Technical Education.