It is better to teach people how to fish than just give them fish -- the employment situation of vocational education in China

Recently， at a vocational training school in Beijing， I interviewed a student of a year of graduation called Xiao Liang. He said， when he failed in college entrance examination， he chose to study the major of automobile electronic detection and maintenance in this school. Since he has strong hands-on skills and excellent grades， he signed the contract with a 4s car shop in Guangdong just after the graduation in December last year with the salary of 4000 yuan per month. “Compared with graduates of colleges， my salary is not that bad.” When talk about his choice of vocational school， he said， “Now it seems a good decision.” Xiao Liang’s story is not the only one， and the present society needs a lot for vocational skills.

Therefore， the emerging prosperity of vocational education in China largely is due to the stimulation of employment. Traditional academic education is starting to be questioned and many parents think students of traditional education lack of employment ability.

近日，在北京某職業(yè)培訓學校，本刊記者采訪到了畢業(yè)一年的學生小亮。小亮說，當初高考落榜后，他選擇了在該校汽車電子檢測與維修專業(yè)學習，由于動手能力強，成績優(yōu)異，去年12月畢業(yè)后，直接就與廣東一家汽車4S店簽約，月薪目前大約4000元以上。“與很多本科畢業(yè)生相比，我的工資待遇并不差?！闭勂甬斈晟下毿５倪x擇，小亮表示，“現(xiàn)在看來，是一個不錯的決定?！毙×敛⒉皇莻€例，當前社會對于職業(yè)技能有著很大的需求。

由此，中國職業(yè)教育開始出現(xiàn)蓬勃的事態(tài)很大一部分原因來自于就業(yè)的驅(qū)使。傳統(tǒng)的學歷教育開始遭到質(zhì)疑，很多家長認為傳統(tǒng)教育培養(yǎng)的學生嚴重缺乏就業(yè)能力。

But even so， academic education is still the main form for bringing talents to society. The increased college enrollment leads to the double increase of talents to society and this year it reached 5.5 million， but the real employment rate is lower than 50%. It is true that the advantage of academic education is considerable theoretical level. It focuses on the systematic and theoretical cultivation of knowledge， so that students can have solid fundamental knowledge. Objectively， it is a quality-oriented education. It represents that students has experienced this kind of quality training， but it doesn’t mean that the fresh students are the talents that enterprises need.

For the current development situation， the weakness of academic education is also obvious. It usually takes 4 years for academic education and the learning plan has already been made when they begin their study， so the change of courses is slow and cannot catch up with the development of industry; at the same time， it lacks of practice and students have no opportunity to apply their ability， so that it is hard for them to reach the demand of enterprises when they graduate.

但盡管如此，當前，學歷教育仍是向社會輸送人才的主要形式。大學擴招以后，每年為社會輸送的人才成倍增長，今年更是達到了550萬左右，而實際就業(yè)率已經(jīng)低于50%。誠然，學歷教育的優(yōu)勢是具有相當?shù)睦碚撍剑瑢W歷教育注重對知識的系統(tǒng)性、理論性培養(yǎng)，能使學生具備堅實的基礎知識，客觀上講，它是一種素質(zhì)教育。它表明學生接受了這種素質(zhì)的訓練，但是這并不代表剛畢業(yè)的學生就是企業(yè)所需要的人才。

就目前的發(fā)展情況來看，學歷教育的弱點同樣也很明顯，主要是學歷教育一般學習4年，學生的教學計劃進校門的時候就規(guī)定好了，所以課程變化慢，往往跟不上產(chǎn)業(yè)的發(fā)展步伐；同時，學歷教育自身缺失實踐環(huán)節(jié)，學生沒有鍛煉實踐能力的機會，很難在一畢業(yè)就達到企業(yè)對人才的那個需求標準。

Several years ago the strange circle of credentialism influenced many people born in 1980s， but with the development of society， the focus of employers is changing gradually. When compared with the diploma. They prefer the actual working ability. According to an incomplete statistics， under the impact of financial crisis in 2009， the employment rate of college graduates was 0.6% lower than that of vocational students. So that， many college graduates go to vocational education training institutes to do pre-job training or retraining.

And vocational education better meets the demand of enterprises. Since the late 1990s， the regulators of vocational education realized that if they want to survive and develop， they need to satisfy the demand of the industry structure adjustment and technology progress in China through continuously adjusting major structures， reforming course plan， improving teaching quality and cultivating market-needed skilled workers. It is said that， in the industries of processing and manufacturing， high speed railway， urban railway system and automobile service， over 70% newly added first-line workers are graduates of vocational schools. It has become the key method for remitting the structural contradictions of employment and improving youths’ employment and pioneering work ability.

“It is better to teach people to fish than just give them fish.” Vocational education is employment education. Zhou Ji， minister of education once said at an interview， “Vocational education should be employment-oriented when does reform and innovation， and it should stick to the school orientation of facing the society and facing the market.”

前幾年文憑至上的怪圈影響了上世紀80年代出生的許多人，然而隨著社會的發(fā)展，用人單位的著眼點逐漸轉(zhuǎn)變。相對于一紙文憑，他們更注重在崗位上的實際工作能力。據(jù)不完全統(tǒng)計，2009年在金融危機的沖擊下，大學生就業(yè)率與高職畢業(yè)生相比下降了0.6個百分點。因此，許多大學畢業(yè)生紛紛到一些職業(yè)教育培訓機構(gòu)學習，進行崗前培訓或是再培訓。

而職業(yè)教育也更加命中企業(yè)需求，自20世紀90年代后期，職業(yè)教育的管理者們認識到了學校要想生存和發(fā)展，必須適應國家產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)構(gòu)調(diào)整和技術(shù)進步的要求，不斷調(diào)整專業(yè)結(jié)構(gòu)，改革課程設置，提高教學質(zhì)量，培養(yǎng)市場需要的技術(shù)工人。據(jù)了解，比如在加工制造、高速鐵路、城市軌道交通、汽車服務等行業(yè)，七成以上的新增一線從業(yè)人員來自職業(yè)院校畢業(yè)生，職業(yè)教育成為緩解就業(yè)結(jié)構(gòu)性矛盾，提升青年就業(yè)創(chuàng)業(yè)能力的關(guān)鍵舉措。

“授人以魚，不如授之以漁”。職業(yè)教育就是就業(yè)教育，中國教育部部長周濟在接受媒體采訪時也曾指出，“職業(yè)教育必須以就業(yè)為導向改革創(chuàng)新，要牢牢把握面向社會、面向市場的辦學方向”。

(The original series of articles are available on UE app. 該系列文章原載于UE app)