Paper Keywords Vocational Education; Core competitiveness; government
First, develop vocational education.
By the beginning of this century, vocational education has developed rapidly and has become an important part of China's education system, and has had a wide impact on all fields of social production. The expansion of the scale of vocational education, the increase in the number of students and the availability of facilities have added great impetus to China's vocational education and even the entire education system. Especially with the promotion of China's new industrialization strategic path, the role of vocational education in the field of social and economic production has become increasingly obvious, and the talent training mode with skills and application as the main theme has played an irreplaceable role in all fields of current social production in China.
Second, the current problems and causes of vocational education in China
The "extensive" growth in the number of vocational education has not promoted the "intensive" improvement in the quality of vocational education, and the problems faced by vocational education have gradually become prominent, especially with the huge negative impact of the global financial crisis on the world economy and employment, vocational college graduates are facing enormous employment pressure, which has had a great impact on the "market-oriented" vocational education talent training model. It is manifested in the internal and external environment of vocational education: vocational education lacks understanding of the professionals needed by the society in the period of economic transformation in China and cannot accurately locate its own development; There is a lag contradiction between the professionalism and effectiveness of vocational education and the curriculum; The quality of teachers is not commensurate with the needs of vocational education; The standardization of higher vocational colleges is low, and the educational evaluation mechanism and teaching quality are difficult to be recognized by the society. The external environmental problems of vocational education are as follows: the social recognition of vocational education is low, the government's investment in funds and policies lags far behind that of ordinary education, and the recognition of vocational education talents by enterprises is not high.
(A) the defects of vocational education itself
1. Vocational education is not positioned correctly, which is similar to general education. The orientation of vocational education is biased towards effectiveness and application, which leads to the lack of its own characteristics. Therefore, the purpose and mode of running a school are simply summed up as general education, and the teaching mode and orientation of general education are sought. The strict orientation of general education should focus on basic education, cultivate students' basic knowledge and cognitive ability, and pay attention to theoretical teaching and practice, which leads to the dislocation of vocational education and an embarrassing situation: compared with vocational education, it lags far behind the advantages of general education and lacks its own characteristics. This is a common problem in current vocational education in China. The related problem is how to locate the training mode of vocational education. What proportion should basic and theoretical education occupy in the teaching content? How to formulate and operate the school management model? What is the standard of curriculum rationality? And the employment direction of graduates.
2. Lack of market-oriented and forward-looking professional settings. The talent training of vocational education ultimately points to meeting the needs of the labor market, so the market-oriented talent training model of vocational education must be forward-looking, which is often the biggest problem faced by vocational education. In addition, the specialty setting in higher vocational colleges is obviously lagging behind, and the majors set fail to grasp the market demand and the long period of educational input and output, and can't cope with the changing demand of the talent market at all. In order to cope with the market changes that can't adapt, some higher vocational colleges adopt popular education mode instead of professional elite education, and position specialty setting and student training as "adaptation" rather than "counterpart". However, the reality of vocational education is that it is inherently underdeveloped and inevitably faces the dilemma of being excluded from general education. Fundamentally speaking, the lack of market orientation in vocational education and the lag in specialty setting and talent training are important reasons for the passive backwardness of vocational education.
3. Vocational education lacks its own cultivation ability. The lack of training ability of vocational education itself is mainly manifested in the lack of education funds, the shortage of vocational education teachers and the lack of vocational education evaluation ability. First of all, relatively speaking, vocational education enjoys far less national policy support and financial input than ordinary education, which makes the input of vocational education mainly come from society and investment operators, leading to many factors such as incomplete teaching facilities and insufficient teachers, which also directly affects the level of vocational education. Secondly, in the process of introducing teachers, higher vocational colleges only pay attention to teachers' educational level, ignoring their educational level and practical training ability, which seriously affects the cultivation of vocational education ability. Thirdly, there is no reasonable and complete evaluation and inspection mechanism in the evaluation and testing methods of practical training and practical training ability standards in higher vocational colleges, which makes the training direction and standards of vocational education unclear and the accurate positioning of student training out of touch, which is an urgent problem for higher vocational colleges.
(B) The social recognition of vocational education is not high.
1. The government does not attach importance to vocational education. The rise and development of vocational education is a non-mainstream form of education divorced from the education system, so it is not taken seriously by the government. On the functional orientation of vocational education, the government promotes it to a great extent as a measure to alleviate the pressure of entering higher schools. The market economy has developed to a certain extent, providing a labor market for skilled and applied talents, making vocational education formally enter the education system and become more and more mature. However, compared with general education, vocational education is in an obvious weak position in many aspects: first, it lacks effective policy support in government policy support; Secondly, the government's investment in vocational education is far less than that in general education. To a great extent, this has become a "reasonable" factor that restricts the development of vocational education, and finally hinders the healthy development of vocational education.
2. The public's recognition of vocational education is not high. The social prejudice against vocational education is fundamentally a derivative of the problems existing in vocational education itself. There is a misunderstanding in the orientation of vocational education in society that "vocational education is the last education, the education with high fees, and the education of double poor students". Although the objective evaluation is biased, the objective reality can not be ignored. Take the vertical dimension of talent training in vocational education as an example: firstly, most students in vocational education are "surplus" students after general education screening, which to some extent divides and establishes the knowledge level and ability composition of the groups receiving vocational education; Secondly, after two or three years of vocational education, graduates can't find jobs in the talent market smoothly, and a considerable number of employers have not fully recognized vocational education graduates, which makes vocational education graduates in an obvious weak position compared with general education graduates. In addition, affected by the current global financial crisis, vocational education graduates are facing more severe forms of employment. In the long run, vocational education in the weak position of Matthew effect will have the possibility of a vicious circle. "
Three. Measures and Suggestions on Developing Vocational Education in China
(A) accurate positioning of the role of higher vocational colleges, enhance the core competitiveness of vocational education
Cultivating educational ideas with core competitiveness is an inevitable choice for vocational education to get rid of difficulties. Core competitiveness is "the ability that has been formed for a long time, has its own unique style and obtains a unique sustainable competitive advantage in the market". The realization of the core competitiveness of vocational education should be characterized by its unique value, innovation and irreplaceability, and realize the all-round development of vocational education in terms of running schools, management mechanism, evaluation and incentive mechanism, construction of teachers, specialty setting and talent training.
1. Accurately locate the development direction of the school and formulate an operation management and evaluation mechanism that conforms to the characteristics of vocational education. Higher vocational colleges should accurately grasp the development direction of economy, science and technology and the demand of talent market, adhere to the local and social characteristics of running schools, and cultivate practical and applied talents. The orientation of higher vocational colleges should get rid of the convergence to the orientation of general education, and should not be a "compressed version" of general education. In the educational management system, we should get rid of the subject-centered teaching mode and the academic and theoretical orientation of general education, but focus on the post demand and pay attention to improving the practicality and application of vocational education, and finally form an educational management and operation mechanism with its own characteristics.
In addition, it is also very important to establish an objective and reasonable evaluation mechanism for vocational education, especially to increase social participation in vocational education evaluation factors. It is of great significance to establish a reasonable evaluation standard for vocational education. Based on the particularity of vocational education education mode and educational objectives, the evaluation mechanism of vocational education should fully involve labor market factors and social factors, actively absorb social industry (enterprises and departments) factors in the process of formulating and implementing objectives, and position it as cultivating highly skilled talents to meet market demand, and take this as the ultimate standard for evaluating the level and ability of vocational education.
2. Establish a professional team of teachers. The lack of specialized teachers in vocational education is also an important reason for the low level of vocational education, especially in the case of teachers with high academic qualifications and low practical ability, which can easily lead to vocational education deviating from the ultimate goal and stagnating in basic disciplines and theories, thus weakening the cultivation of students' technical and practical ability. In view of the common problems in higher vocational colleges, it is of great significance to improve the quality, ability construction and practical operation ability of vocational education teachers. In foreign countries, many countries strongly advocate the development model of vocational education with ability training as the core. CBE (Competency-based Education) model represented by Canada, CBET (Competency-based Education and Training) model represented by Britain and Australia, and "Dual System" model represented by Germany all organize teaching with the post competence as the goal, forming a teaching guiding ideology centered on professional competence. Competency standards are formulated by experts with practical work experience; The "ability-centered" vocational education training mode, which is composed of three parts: the combination of Industry-University-Research and the training of students' professional post ability, basic quality and adaptability, has important reference significance for China's vocational education.
3. Pay attention to the foresightedness and effectiveness of majors and courses. Higher vocational colleges should face the labor market in specialty setting and talent training, abandon the specialty setting with strong theory and weak practicality, actively give way to general education, and take specialty and professional talent training as the main direction. Schools should start from their own school-running characteristics, fully consider the professional development trend and employment needs, and set up some forward-looking and effective majors according to the teachers, teaching equipment and majors of the school, especially to avoid rushing headlong into it. Vocational education should avoid the conflict between professional theoretical knowledge and practical skills, accurately distinguish the coordination between comprehensive ability training and professional skills improvement, and find the balance point between them.
(2) Give play to the positive role of the government and improve the social recognition of vocational education.
1. Improve the government's policy support for vocational education. Formulating active and effective policies to guide the development of vocational education is of far-reaching significance to the development of higher vocational colleges. Active and effective policy guidance should be the formulation and implementation of the policy of "doing something and not doing something". In addition, in the process of vocational education development, the role of the government should be the planner, not the implementer, and its main function is to reasonably guide and plan the development direction of vocational education, not the specific operation mode of vocational education. Only by making vocational education completely independent can the development of vocational education actively adapt to the needs of the labor market and cultivate qualified vocational education talents.
2. Adjust the government's investment in vocational education. The adjustment of the government's investment in vocational education includes two aspects: one is to adjust the proportion of investment in general education and vocational education, so as to make overall plans; In terms of capital investment, the government should properly tilt its investment in vocational education and adjust its investment ratio, which will be of great significance to the development of vocational education. The second is to adjust the proportion of internal capital investment in vocational education and adhere to the principle of "grasping the big and releasing the small". Since the development of vocational education, it has shown a trend of rapid expansion in quantity and scale. On the whole, the development of vocational education in China, especially higher vocational colleges, is mixed, and a considerable number of higher vocational colleges are in a state of non-benign development. Taking the national 1 184 vocational colleges in 2008 as an example, there are very few vocational colleges that really form their own brands, such as shenzhen polytechnic and shandong institute of commerce and technology, and many vocational colleges have no clear positioning. Conformity is prevalent in higher vocational colleges, and the phenomenon of "one city and one side" is not uncommon. The government should adhere to the principle of "grasping the big and letting the small" in the capital investment of various higher vocational colleges. Only by comprehensively adjusting the capital investment of vocational education can vocational education develop healthily step by step and become bigger and stronger.
3. Improve the government's evaluation and supervision mechanism of vocational education and enhance the social recognition of vocational education. First of all, clearly distinguish the difference between vocational education and general education, and formulate reasonable evaluation standards and supervision mechanisms. The evaluation and supervision mechanism should fundamentally get rid of the discipline-centered model and adopt a practical and professional education and training model. In the process of formulating the evaluation and supervision mechanism, we should pay attention to absorbing the implementation evaluation standards of various industries in society and make a comprehensive evaluation of vocational education. Secondly, the government and relevant departments should vigorously promote the recognition system of vocational qualification certificates and enhance the legitimacy of vocational education. In Britain, vocational education is mainly around professional standards. Students who pass the training can obtain national vocational qualifications, and the certificate is divided into five grades, which are directly judged by experts on the spot. In Australia, the government promotes the "training package" of vocational education, determines the standards of vocational education ability, and sets up special industry skills committees or some enterprises to formulate them directly according to needs. Australia's existing "training package" covers more than 90% of industries, which has certain enlightenment and reference significance for China's vocational education.
4. Build a platform for the marketization of vocational education. On the one hand, the government should actively strengthen the connection between vocational education and labor market, and build a supply and demand platform for the marketization of vocational education. On the other hand, the government should intensify propaganda to lay a mass foundation for the rationality and legitimacy of vocational education. The government's recognition and publicity of vocational education will effectively guide the society's recognition of vocational education, especially change people's long-standing thinking inertia of vocational education, so as to re-examine the rationality and legitimacy of vocational education. In 2009, some provinces and cities recruited civil servants and opened some positions for high school graduates and vocational education graduates to take the unified examination, which to a great extent affirmed and publicized vocational education and played a positive role in the current development of vocational education in China. Relevant measures are worthy of further promotion and implementation.