It is generally believed that there are obvious differences between general education and vocational education. Their origins are different, their executive bodies are different, and their functions and training objectives are also different. These fundamental differences determine the status of general education and vocational education, and also determine their different tendencies in curriculum setting, that is, general education focuses on imparting academic knowledge and vocational education focuses on cultivating practical skills. But in the broadest sense, in a modern society with a highly developed social division of labor, everyone's education should be composed of general education and vocational education, otherwise it will be difficult to settle down and assume various social responsibilities. In other words, general education and vocational education have the same fundamental educational purpose, that is, to cultivate "socialized people".

Differences between vocational education and general education in talent training

(A) differences in students

At present, the students in higher vocational colleges come from three aspects: first, students who take the general college entrance examination, second, students who enroll in secondary vocational and technical colleges and vocational high schools, and third, students who graduate from junior high schools; Students in general education are usually high school graduates at school.

(B) differences in training objectives

General education mainly trains research-oriented, exploratory and design-oriented talents, while vocational education mainly trains technical and management talents who have both professional knowledge and advanced skills, can provide technical guidance, transform design drawings into required objects, and can conduct on-site command by using design concepts or management ideas. In other words, vocational education trains skilled, operational and advanced technical talents with university culture. Compared with general education, most students trained by vocational education can go to work directly after graduation, and there is generally no so-called transition period or adaptation period, even if there is one, it is very short.

(C) and the difference between economic development

With the development of society, higher education is more and more closely linked with social and economic development, and vocational education is the most closely linked part of higher education and economic development. At a certain stage of development, the growth of the number of students in vocational education is positively related to the change of regional gross national product. Higher vocational education aims at regional economic development and social needs, and trains senior vocational and technical personnel in related industries. Its scale, development speed and the change of industrial structure depend on the change of economic development speed and industrial structure. With the strategic adjustment of China's economic structure, the development requirements and orientation of vocational education must be based on the needs of social and economic development. How to tap its intrinsic value and make it serve the society more effectively is its fundamental requirement.

(D) the difference between professional setting and curriculum setting

In terms of specialty setting and curriculum setting, general education is set in strict accordance with the internal logic of subject knowledge system, while vocational education is designed with the ability demand or ability elements of professional posts as the core. As far as the majors of vocational education are concerned, it can be said that there are as many majors as there are in society; As far as the curriculum of vocational education is concerned, it is also through the analysis of professional posts to determine the required ability or quality system of each professional post, and then determine the corresponding curriculum system. Some people vividly say that a series of products and vocational certificates are used to construct the curriculum system, so as to realize the seamless connection between vocational education and social needs.

(e) Differences in training methods

General education focuses on theoretical teaching, although there are also links such as experiments and internships, but its purpose is only to better learn and master theoretical knowledge, focusing on the understanding and teaching of theoretical knowledge. Vocational education focuses on cultivating students' practical ability, paying equal attention to theory and practice, and combining education with training at all times. Therefore, skill training is placed in an extremely important position, paying attention to teaching by doing, advocating the principle of knowledge and making up for deficiencies, and the proportion of practical teaching is particularly large. The direct effect of this is that, compared with general education, students trained by vocational education engage in jobs corresponding to vocational and technical education majors after graduation, have better psychological preparation and technical preparation for posts, can quickly adapt to various post requirements, and bring greater economic benefits to enterprises or units.