From Grading to Classification

Xu Guoqing

From Grading to Classification

The Reform and Development Path of Vocational Education

by Guoqing Xu (Author)
©2023, Monographs, 30, 322 Pages
Education

Series: China's Path to Education Modernization, Volume 3

The tremendous economic and social changes over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up have provided a seedbed for the historic achievements in the development of vocational education in China. The development of vocational education over the past 40 years can be divided into three phases: the restoration and development phase of secondary vocational education in the 1980s, the phase of stability and consolidation in the 1990s, and the phase of strengthening the system and comprehensively deepening foundations since the 21st century. From starting everything from scratch in the 1980s to the intense hard work in the 1990s, and then to the scientific development in the 21st century, vocational education has come through a crucial historical period. It has developed more systemically and deeply than any other period in history. At present, China’s vocational education has entered a new era. The main challenges faced by vocational education in the new era include: to further consolidate the status of vocational education and accomplish each connection smoothly; to establish a national institutional platform for school-enterprise cooperation; to set up a scientific assessment system in order to analyze labor demand for industrial development; to build national professional teaching standards for vocational education; to establish a standardized and systematic training system for vocational education teachers; and to enhance top-level design and advance the implementation of a modern apprenticeship system.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Phases and Achievements of Vocational Education over the 40 Years of Reform and Opening-Up

2. Main Features of the Development of Vocational Education over the 40 Years of Reform and Opening-Up

3. The Challenges and Thoughts for Developing Vocational Education in the New Era

Chapter One: Adjusting the Structure of Secondary Education

Part 1 The Fermentation of the Idea of Structural Reform in Secondary Education

Part 2 New Student Enrollments of Vocational and Technical Schools Should Be Equivalent to That of Regular Senior High Schools

1. Designating “Half the Sky” Position to Vocational Education in China’s Educational Structure

2. Take the Transformation of the Underlying Attitudes as the Logical Starting Point of the Development of Vocational Education in China

Part 3 Development of Secondary Vocational Education under the Educational Structure Adjustment Policies

1. The Structural Imbalance of Secondary Education Has Been Fundamentally Reversed

2. The Extremely Unbalanced Development within Secondary Vocational Education

3. The Development of Secondary Vocational Education Benefits from Strong Government Promotion

Chapter Two: Building a Scientific Concept of Talent

Part 1 The Urgent Discussion on Attitudes to Skilled Workers Brought on by the Sharp Decline in the Enrollments of Secondary Vocational Schools at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries

1. The Sharp Decline in New Student Enrollments in Secondary Vocational Schools at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries

2. Major Countermeasures for the Sharp Decline in the Enrollments of Secondary Vocational Schools

Part 2 Concern for the Weak Position of Skilled Talents in Employment

1. Manifestations of Skilled Talents’ Disadvantaged Status in Employment

2. Reasons for the Weak Position of Skilled Workers in Employment

Part 3 Senior Skilled Workers and Technicians Are Also Professionals

1. Policy Support for the Confirmation of Skilled Talents’ Values

2. Media Support for the Confirmation of Skilled Workers’ Values

3. The Contribution of Shanghai Vocational and Technical Education Forum to the Confirmation of Killed Workers’ Value

Chapter Three: Establishing the Strategic Position of Developing Vocational Education

Part 1 Industrial Upgrading and Shortage of Highly Skilled Experts

1. Focus on Improving the Industrial and Technical Levels

2. Highly Skilled Professionals Account for Only about 5% of Skilled Workers

Part 2 Policy Path to the Formation of the Strategic Position of Vocational Education

Part 3 Theoretical Explanation of the Functions of Vocational Education

1. Interpretation of the Functions of Vocational Education by German Scholars

2. Interpretation of the Functions of Vocational Education by U.S. Scholars

3. How to Make Vocational Education Better Accepted by Learners

Chapter Four: Constructing a Modern Vocational Education System with Chinese Characteristics

Part 1 Actively Developing Higher Vocational Education through Multiple Approaches

1. Exploration of Higher Vocational Education

2. The Formal Birth of Higher Vocational Education

3. Curriculum and Associated Development of Higher Vocational Education

Part 2 Directing Some Local Undergraduate Institutions to Transform into Technical Institutions

1. The Policy Path to the Development of Technical Undergraduate Education

2. Local Practice of Developing Applied-Technology Undergraduate Education

3. Several Problems in Transforming Local Undergraduate Institutions into Applied-Technology Institutions

Part 3 Facilitating the Coordinated Development and Interconnection of Secondary and Higher Vocational Schools

1. Policy Path to the Construction of a Modern Vocational Education System

2. Local Practice in Constructing a Modern Vocational Education System

3. A Design to Achieve the Construction of a Modern Vocational Education System in China

Chapter Five: Developing Vocational Education Based on the Needs of Industry and Enterprises

Part 1 The Policy Path to Promoting School-Enterprise Cooperation

1. School-Enterprise Cooperation at the Subconscious Stage

2. School-Enterprise Cooperation at the Conscious Stage

3. School-Enterprise Cooperation at the Systematic Design Stage

Part 2 Overview of the Practice of School-Enterprise Cooperation

1. Analysis of the Overall Progress of School-Enterprise Cooperation

2. Case Study of School-Enterprise Cooperation

Part 3 How to Facilitate School-Enterprise Cooperation under Market Economy Conditions

1. Paths to the Construction of School-Enterprise Cooperation Systems under Market Economy Conditions

2. Basic Strategies for the Construction of School-Enterprise Cooperation System under Market Economy Conditions

Chapter Six: Vocational Education Should Actively Serve Economic Development

Part 1 Promoting the Optimization and Upgrading of the Industrial Structure

1. Policy Paths to Upgrading Industrial Structure

2. The Current Situation of Upgrading Industrial Structure

Part 2 Promoting Specialty Structures That Connect to Industrial Demand

1. Policy Paths to Specialty Structural Adjustment of Secondary Vocational Education

2. Policy Paths to the Structural Adjustment of Higher Vocational Education Specialties

Part 3 Practice of Adapting Specialty Restructuring to Industrial Restructuring

1. Local Practice: Make Education and Training Structures More Compatible with Labour Demand

2. How to Rationally Understand the Degree of Coincidence in Training Structures with Demand Structure

Chapter Seven: Establishing a Competency-Based Curriculum and Teaching Model

Part 1 Vocational Curriculum Construction at the Conceptual Stage

Part 2 Vocational Curriculum Construction in the Scientific Stage

1. Progress in Vocational Curriculum Research

2. Diversified Implementation of Vocational Curriculum Construction

3. Features and Problems of Curriculum Construction at the Scientific Stage

Part 3 Specialized Teaching Standards Construction Is the Foundation of Modern Vocational Education

1. The Significance of Developing National Specialized Teaching Standards

2. The Overall Situation of the Construction of Specialized Teaching Standards in Developed Countries

3. Key Technical Issues in Developing National Specialized Teaching Standards

Chapter Eight: Building a Training System That Meets the Requirements for Teacher Specialization

Part 1 The Serious Shortage of Teachers Was a Conspicuous Impediment in Developing Vocational Education at the Initial Stage after Reform and Opening-Up

Part 2 Developing Multiple Approaches to Cultivate Vocational Teachers

1. Investigations of Models of Vocational and Technical Teacher Education

2. Investigation of Teacher Training Models of Vocational and Technical Education

3. Investigation of the Academic Education of Vocational Teachers

Part 3 Cultivating a Model Selection and System Construction for Vocational Teachers

1. Major Problems Confronted by Vocational Teachers

2. Key Strategies for the Establishment of a Vocational Teacher Training System

Chapter Nine: Developing a Modern Apprenticeship System to Cultivate Great Craftsmen

Part 1 The Background for Developing Modern Apprenticeships in China

1. Two Purposes for Developing Modern Apprenticeship in Western Countries

2. The Transforming Process of China’s Training Model of Vocational Talent

3. The Purpose of Developing a Modern Apprenticeship System in China

Part 2 Key Issues in Implementing Modern Apprenticeship in China

1. How to Understand the Essence of Modern Apprenticeship Systems

2. What Kind of Modern Apprenticeships Should China Develop?

3. What Kind of System Barriers Does China Face in Developing a Modern Apprenticeship System?

Chapter Ten: Constructing a Social System That Transforms Vocational Education from Grading to Classification

Part 1 Guarantee the Economic Status and Social Benefits of Skilled Workers through System Change

Part 2 Putting Reasonable Limits on the Freedom of Corporate Labor Recruitment under Market Economy Conditions

References

List of Figures

Figure 1.1 The Gate of Guangxi Transport School

Figure 2.1 Automobile maintenance majors are practicing their coating skills

Figure 2.2 Classification diagram based on “science” and “technology”

Figure 3.1 The practical training workshop in Jiangnan Shipyard Technical School (2003)

Figure 3.2 Intelligent machine manufacturing workshop

Figure 4.1 Gate of Yellow River Hydraulic Engineering College

Figure 4.2 Gate of Shenzhen Polytechnic

Figure 4.3 The annual trend in the proportion of higher vocational school students to the total enrolled number of regular higher education (2000–2015)

Figure 4.4 The changing trend in the proportion of new student enrollment of higher vocational schools to the total enrolled numbers in regular higher education

Figure 4.5 Shanghai Institute of Technology

Figure 4.6 The concept of a staged hierarchy of Beijing vocational education

Figure 4.7 The concept for school cohesive paths based on a modern vocational education system in Shanghai

Figure 5.1 Hangzhou Vocational & Technical College signing the cooperation agreement with the Fair Friend Enterprise Group

Figure 6.1 The busy modern port

Figure 6.2 Variation trajectory chart of the output value structure of China’s three industrial sectors between 1978 and 2015

Figure 6.3 Broken line graph of the number of employees in China’s three industrial sectors between 1978 and 2015

Figure 6.4 Graph of the proportion of the number of employees in China’s three industrial sectors between 1978 and 2015

Figure 6.5 Distribution of the main specialties of the independent higher vocational schools in Shanghai in 2012

Figure 7.1 Nursing students role-playing

Figure 7.2 Analysis on work tasks and occupational capabilities

Figure 8.1 The Gate of Tianjin University of Technology and Education

Figure 8.2 The National Key Vocational Teacher Training Base in the East China Normal University

Figure 9.1 A Korean vehicle repairing teacher is teaching practical training

Figure 9.2 The relationship between industrial form and apprenticeship development

Figure 9.3 The structure of the modern apprenticeship system in China

Figure 10.1 A foreign teacher is teaching students how to install pipelines

List of Tables

Table 1.1 Expressions about the “enrollment scale ratio of regular high schools to secondary vocational schools” in important documents since 1985

Table 1.2 Numbers of various secondary vocational schools, regular senior high schools, and students nationwide from 1978 to 1999

Table 1.3 The ratio of senior high school new student enrollment to the total number of high school students in main years

Table 2.1 The wage management system of an enterprise in Chongqing—the wage standard for initial job holders

Table 2.2 The wage management system of an enterprise in Chongqing—the wage standard for noninitial job holders and new employees during the probation period

Table 2.3 Ningbo professional technical grade wage levels

Table 2.4 Career development channels for different types of posts

Table 2.5 Main documents and significance of promoting the confirmation of the values of skilled students

Table 4.1 Development status of national higher vocational schools in the period 1978–2015

Table 4.2 The proportion of the number of higher vocational school students to the total enrolled number of regular higher education (%)

Table 4.3 The proportion of new student enrollments in higher vocational education to the total enrolled number of regular higher vocational education (%)

Table 6.1 The output value structure of China’s three industrial sectors between 1978 and 2015

Table 6.2 The numbers of employees in China’s three industrial sectors between 1978 and 2015

Table 6.3 Distribution of the main specialties of 30 higher vocational schools in Shanghai

Table 6.4 Distribution of the enrollments of the main specialties in 30 higher vocational schools in Shanghai

Table 7.1 Significant events in introducing and promoting CBE in China

Table 7.2 Construction projects of various types of vocational curriculum

Table 7.3 Teaching arrangements for moral education compulsory courses

Table 8.1 The number of full-time teachers, the student-teacher ratio and the number of academically qualified full-time teachers in secondary vocational education

Table 8.2 The number of higher vocational teachers during the period 2004–2016

Table 8.3 Independent vocational and technical normal colleges in China during 1979–1988

Table 8.4 Comparison of the vocational teacher training modes between Germany and the U.S.

Pages:

30, 322

Year:

2023

ISBN (HARDBACK):

9781433169304 (Active)

ISBN (EPUB):

9781433195976 (Active)

ISBN (PDF):

9781433195969 (Active)

Language:

English

Keywords:

Development, education, China, Classification, Reform, Path, modernization, Vocational, China's, Yuan, Zhenguo, Grading, Guoqing, secondary education, Vocational education

Published:

Xu Guoqing is currently President of Institute of Vocational and Adult Education, East China Normal University. He is mainly engaged in vocational education courses and theoretical research on vocational education.

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From Grading to Classification

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