China Business News: In a manufacturing country like China, the shortage of skilled workers is not a new topic. Although the country began to vigorously promote the training of skilled workers a few years ago, there is still a big gap, especially in Shanghai, a city with a large proportion of manufacturing. Why is there still no obvious improvement in the training of skilled workers?
Lei: First of all, we should make it clear that vocational education is an education to train workers for the first line of production. This definition is very clear, and it is also a high-quality worker, which is different from ordinary migrant workers. Our vocational education is to train high-quality workers for the society and the front line of production.
Just started training ordinary workers; Secondary vocational schools mainly train skilled workers, who can operate CNC machine tools and carry out all-round maintenance of automobiles, with skills as the mainstay; Higher vocational education is to understand theory and practice, that is, gray collar. Now there is a shortage of skilled workers, which means that the number of students trained in secondary vocational education is not enough, because there are not many students receiving secondary vocational education.
"First Financial Daily": Is it because of the concept that there are not many students applying for secondary vocational schools?
Ray: Yes. At present, there is still such a concept in society: workers are not great and labor is not glorious. There is also an educational principle: the social status of an educational institution is determined by the economic benefits that the people it trains will get in society in the future. People trained by vocational education can't get good economic benefits in society, so their social status is not high. Although the country has been vigorously promoting vocational education, and the government has recognized it, the Shanghai Municipal Government is also vigorously promoting it, but the concept of ordinary people can not be changed in a day or two, and many parents of students still think it is better to be white-collar workers.
Another reason is that vocational education is imperfect and the theory is weak. So far, there is still no theoretical work on vocational education recognized by the state. Without a complete theoretical system, there is no authority among the people.
Xu Guoqing: The theory of "academic qualifications first" has squeezed the development space of vocational education, which is only a superficial reason. The deeper reason is that poor social treatment leads to the decline of secondary vocational education and even higher vocational education. In the mid-1990s, vocational education in China experienced a period of rapid development. At that time, technical secondary school graduation was established by national cadres, and it was a very good way to enter state-owned enterprises or collective enterprises after technical secondary school graduation. This is similar to the salary level of foreign skilled workers and professors. Therefore, it lies in social treatment.
China Business News: The current situation means that vocational education is in an awkward position. For the general public, there is prejudice against vocational education. How should this prejudice be changed?
Lei: Many people may not know what vocational education is doing at present. Some people say that vocational education is to train front-line skilled workers. Actually, it is not. Vocational education trains not only laborers, but also people who meet social standards.
From the perspective of education, vocational education has the following three functions: 1. Enhance students' employability. Second, secondary vocational education is also high school education. Since it is education, it is necessary to promote students' intellectual development, which is different from general training. For example, mathematics and vocational education should also learn such subjects to cultivate logical thinking ability. Third, we should treat employment with a humanistic attitude. Emphasis should be placed on team spirit, sense of responsibility and expression spirit. Our vocational education should strive to improve students' personality. If everyone can understand it this way, it may eliminate some misunderstandings in the hearts of ordinary people.
Unfortunately, most people's understanding now is only the first aspect.
China Business News: On the one hand, it is difficult for college graduates to find jobs, on the other hand, there is a shortage of skilled workers. What is the ratio of higher education to vocational education in the whole education system?
Xu Guoqing: The balance of educational structure determines the balance of society. But the current situation is that the educational structure does not match the social talent demand structure. "Skilled worker shortage" and "difficult employment for college students" are both employment problems caused by educational structure. With the development of economy and labor-intensive industries in China, a large number of jobs have been created, but it is hard to understand that many college students can't find jobs at present.
In my opinion, the difficulty of college students' employment lies in the rapid expansion of higher education on the one hand, and the talent training mode of university education itself on the other hand: emphasizing theory over practice, so it can't meet the requirements of society for practical operation.
The shortage of skilled workers is not entirely a problem of lack of talents. The more important reason is that enterprises do not provide enough conditions to attract talents, which leads to the inability to retain talents. I learned from a survey in a technical school that less than half of them stayed in their original posts six months after graduation. Many enterprises have high labor intensity, poor working environment and insufficient labor protection, and the average salary is1000 ~ 2,000 yuan/month, which can't attract students.
The development degree of vocational education in a country should be consistent with industrial development and basic national conditions. Germany is a big manufacturing country with developed vocational education. As a developing country, China needs to consolidate secondary vocational education and gradually develop higher vocational education. In my opinion, it is not an exaggeration for vocational education to account for 60% of the whole education system in the future.
The talent model in developed countries is oval.
China Business News: According to the internationally accepted rules, what should be the ratio of vocational education to higher education? What is the current situation in China?
Ray: It's hard to say the ratio. Talents can basically be divided into four categories: academic, engineering, technical and skilled.
The shape of the international model is oval, which means that there are relatively few academic and skilled talents, while there are more engineering and technical talents in the middle. Because most of the production equipment is computer-controlled, there are fewer and fewer operators who only master the original skills and do not understand modern technology. At present, the mainstream talent model in China is still a pyramid, with academic qualifications at the top and skills at the bottom. Although it has gradually become oval in some industries and enterprises, it is far from enough.
China Business News: How to continue to promote vocational education and make it gradually become an oval talent model, so as to solve the problem of shortage of skilled talents?
Lei: It is necessary to establish a government-led development model and strengthen publicity. Now the government has said that workers are greater and their work is more glorious.
It is also necessary to strengthen the government's investment in this area: vocational training is more expensive than ordinary high schools. The high school may be 6.5438+million yuan, and the vocational school is 50 million yuan, because training these technical talents requires special experimental bases.
I hope to determine the position and role of vocational education in enterprises in the form of law. Germany has laws, and their "dual system" education can make enterprises and schools win-win, and the government gives preferential treatment or subsidies to enterprises. And what we are talking about now is a win-win situation for the government, society, enterprises and schools. The current situation is that many times enterprises have not found benefits from this cooperation, and students in secondary vocational schools are not even allowed to go to enterprises for internships.
While carrying out vocational education, we should also advocate the rational use of talents and give full play to their talents. Nowadays, many enterprises are pursuing high education, such as banks, and all the people who serve at the counter are college students. In fact, there are enough students in vocational schools. Vocational education is to train the working process of counting money, distinguishing authenticity and counting money. Vocational school students are more suitable for professional skills, but many enterprises are pursuing so-called high-quality talents and wasting human resources.
We should also do a good job in management, professional curriculum education and evaluation management from within the school.
China Business News: At present, the investment in vocational education only accounts for 20% of the education industry. How much should it tilt? What suggestions do you have for the allocation of educational resources?
Xu Guoqing: I didn't count the quantity. However, there is no doubt that the national policy needs to be tilted towards vocational education. At present, most people who receive vocational education are socially disadvantaged groups. Investing in vocational education can help social vulnerable groups and improve social equity. On the basis of ensuring compulsory education, we will focus on investing in vocational education. Of course, the investment in vocational education is high, and the cost of running a school is obviously higher than that of general education due to factors such as equipment and consumables. The per capita expenditure of vocational colleges in the world is 2 to 2.5 times that of ordinary schools, but at present, the per capita expenditure of vocational colleges in Shanghai and even the whole country is often not as good as that of ordinary high schools.
Developing vocational education can't solve the problem by just investing one or two hundred million yuan. The key is to build a social platform for developing vocational education. We must change extensive economic's development model and pursue product quality and service level. Only when enterprises have these high requirements can vocational education flourish. In addition, the supporting policies for running schools, the cooperation mechanism between schools and enterprises, the social status of workers, the working environment and future career development are all systematic considerations that are lacking in the current development of vocational education. In addition, the discontinuity of policies has a negative impact on the development of vocational education.