China Thirsty for Skilled Workers amid Industrial Upgrade, Tech Self-sufficiency1产业升级与技术自给带动中国技能人才需求

Vocational education has great significance for promoting employment and entrepreneurship， boosting economic and social development， and China actively pushes forward the high-quality development of vocational education， and supports exchanges and cooperation in vocational education with other countries， Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory letter to the World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference on August 19， the first such event of its kind， which was being held in North China’s Tianjin Municipality. Xi’s words underscored the great emphasis China puts on vocational education， as the world’s largest manufacturing powerhouse—with a technical talent pool gap estimated to reach 30 million by 2025—is thirsty for skilled workers and technical personnel in emerging high-tech sectors ranging from robots and artificial intelligence to new energy， amid pushes for industrial upgrading and technical self-sufficiency， participants said.

8月19日，首届世界职业技术教育发展大会在华北直辖市天津举办。中国国家主席习近平在致大会的贺信中指出，职业教育对促进就业创业、助力经济社会发展具有重要意义。中国积极推动职业教育高质量发展，支持中外职业教育交流合作。与会者说，习近平的贺信凸显了中国对职业教育的高度重视。中国作为世界第一制造业大国，到2025年技术人才库缺口预计达到3000万。为推动产业升级和技术自给自足，从机器人和人工智能到新能源等新兴高科技领域，都急需技术工人和技术专家。

As China is facing labor market strains， vocational education is set to play an outsized role in easing the job market mismatches that partly fuel “structural unemployment，” while also funneling2 more opportunities to young job-seekers. Observers said that in the long term， vocational and academic education could achieve synergies， creating a multi-layered workforce that fires the world’s second-largest economy on all cylinders3.

中国正面临劳动力市场紧张的问题，发展职业教育有望在两方面发挥巨大作用：缓解在某种程度上加剧了“结构性失业”的就业市场供需错配问题，同时也为年轻求职者提供更多的就业机会。评论员称，就长远看，职业教育和学历教育能够实现协同发展，构建多层次的劳动力体系，为世界第二大经济体提供最大支持保障。

According to Wang Weiyuan， the vice president of the Tianjin Vocational College of Mechanics and Electricity （TVCME）， there has been a “drastic increase” in the need for skilled labor in recent years and such enterprise-level demand is “unprecedented，” particularly in sectors concerning intelligent manufacturing， such as industrial robots， intelligent equipment-making and aviation.

天津机电职业技术学院副校长王维园认为，近年来技能劳动者需求“急剧增长”，这种企业层面的需求“前所未有”，在工业机器人、智能设备制造及航空等涉及人工智能制造的领域尤其如此。

“Such a shift is in line with China’s position as a strong global manufacturing base and how the Chinese economy will propel itself going forward. Chinese society is in urgent need of high-quality professional workers，” Wang explained， adding that the employment rate of the school’s 4，000 graduates has exceeded 90 percent this year， and a host of students even signed employment contracts before graduation.

“这一转变与中国作为全球制造业强国的地位以及中国推动自身经济发展的方式相一致。中国社会急需高素质的专业技工。”王维园解释道，并补充说，天津机电职业技术学院2022年有4000名毕业生，就业率已超过90%，而且很多学生甚至在毕业前就签订了劳动合同。

The Global Times learned from other vocational colleges in Tianjin that an above-90-percent employment rate is “quite common，” and some new， red-hot majors have seen a 100-percent employment rate.

根据《环球时报》记者从天津其他职业院校了解到的情况，超过90%的就业率是“十分普遍的”，而且一些大热的新兴专业就业率甚至达到了100%。

Enterprises have achieved cooperation with many schools and set up special classes starting with the junior year to nurture targeted talent—a model called “order-form teaching.”

企业已经与多所职业院校达成合作，从大三年级开始设置专门课程定向培养人才，这种模式也叫作“订单式教学”。

TVCME has signed model contracts with a number of firms such as Mercedes-Benz’s Beijing plant， and students under the “order-form teaching” model accounted for 70 percent of its graduates this year.

天津机电职业技术学院已经与北京奔驰等多家企业签订了校企合作示范协议，通过“订单式教学”模式培养的学生今年达到了毕业生的70%。

Other companies on the list of partnerships with Tianjin vocational schools include robotics firm Siasun Robotics， Qilin Software—which develops homegrown operation systems—and big data firm Inspur.

在天津职业院校的合作企业清单上，还包括机器人企业新松机器人、国产操作系统开发企业麒麟软件，以及大数据企业浪潮集团。

The hot vocational job market in Tianjin， where manufacturing accounts for about half of the economy， epitomizes how demands for what are traditionally known as “blue-collar” workers have been shooting up in recent years at the national level.

在制造业占经济一半左右的天津，职业技术就业市场的火爆可以说是近年全国范围内传统“蓝领”工人需求激增的一个缩影。

According to a report jointly issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology， the gap in skilled workers among China’s 10 major manufacturing sectors has exceeded 19 million， and such vacancies are estimated to reach 30 million in 2025， translating to a gap of 48 percent.

由中国人力资源和社会保障部和工业和信息化部联合发布的一份报告显示，中国制造业10大重点领域技术工人需求人才缺口已经超过1900万，到2025年预计这一缺口将达到3000万，缺口率高达48%。

“We’re not talking about blue-collar workers， or the ‘screws’ in flow line production in traditional terms. What China’s manufacturing upgrade needs is not migrant workers without any entry threshold. To be qualified for new kinds of jobs， you need to be professionally trained， innovation-oriented and hold a lot of certificates，” Qi Yuming， deputy dean of the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Equipment under Tianjin University of Technology and Education， told the Global Times.

“我们不是在讨论蓝领工人或是传统语境中常说的流水线上的‘螺丝钉’工人。中国制造业升级需要的不是没有任何准入门槛的外出务工工人。要达到新岗位的从业要求，需要经过专业训练，具有创新精神，具有多项资格证书。”天津职业技术师范大学机器人及智能装备研究所副所长祁宇明告诉《环球时报》记者。