Peer education first appeared in the mid-1990s. With the adjustment of the national economic policy, in order to meet the social demand for talents, to support the development of secondary vocational schools, and to meet the desire of vocational college students to continue their studies, the state has issued a counterpart education policy.

The enrollment target of counterpart education is graduates from vocational secondary schools and junior colleges. Relatively speaking, counterpart education is equivalent to determining the future enrollment direction in advance, and the choice of majors is narrower than that of the college entrance examination, but compared with the general college entrance examination, the probability of going to college through counterpart education will be higher. And the difficulty of entering a higher school is much simpler than the ordinary college entrance examination.

The counterpart education plan also belongs to the enrollment plan of colleges and universities in that year, and students who participate in counterpart education enjoy the same treatment as college enrollment. Generally, entrance examinations are basic cultural courses and corresponding professional courses, but the situation in each province is different, and the situation in some provinces is different every year.

The enrollment channels and methods of counterpart education and unified recruitment are the same, which are uniformly stipulated by the national education authorities. The biggest difference between counterpart education and unified recruitment is that the training goal of counterpart education is all kinds of advanced practical talents urgently needed by society, not research-oriented talents. Cultivating talents for further study requires not only theoretical knowledge, but also practical operation ability.