Are We Ready for the New Round of
TVET development？
——based on China’s National Plan for Medium and
Long-term Education Reform and Development
(2010-2020)
Prof. Dr. Shi Weiping
Dr. Kuang Ying
Institute of Vocational and Technical Education
East China Normal University
Shanghai, China
1. Background of the Plan
2. Brief Introduction of the Plan
3. Contents of TVET in the Plan
4. Comments and Discussion
 China’s National Plan for Medium and Longterm Education Reform and Development
(2010-2020) was published on July 8th, 2010.
 The plan is the first key document in 21st
century which advances that China attains in
the main her education modernization by the
year of 2020.
 This is an inevitable demand of China’s socioeconomic development, the promotion of the
international status, and the solution to the
problems arising in education progress.
1. Background of the Plan
1.1 International situations and
education development
We are experiencing a new era which is
characterized by 3 features:
 Knowledge-based economy which has been a
dominant economy in the world should be supported
by millions of knowledgeable workers;
 Internationalization which leads more cooperation
and communication in all kinds of fields including
education;
 Informationization and network popularity has
changed thoroughly in civil living style and social
operation system。
To sum up
 The quality of human resources is reflected
as a more and more important factor by that
3 features of our world.
 Human resources especially creative talents
are inevitably becoming the priority of
international competency.
 Therefore, whether a country’s education can
produce these human resources will
determine the future of the country’s
development.
1.2 Domestic situations and
education development
1.2.1 Demand of completing a lifelong education
system and building a learning society
 In China, we are in the progress of building a learning
society. Learning needs to be organized on a different
set of principles requiring a new learning system.
 People not only learn during their student’s time but
learn through their lives as well. It is necessary and
urgent to completing a lifelong education system to
provide all sorts of education service for all kinds of
people with different ages, different situations and to
meet different needs.
 At that time, everyone will enter the learning system at
anytime with any identification and get the appropriate
education.
1.2.2 Demand of sustainable economic growth
 GDP in China has increased from 300 billion in 1980 to
over 3,000,000 billion in 2009, nearly 86 times increase.
 However, the economic growth in China cost a lot
including resources consumption, environment damage,
and cheap labor force. These cannot support a
sustainable economic growth in the future year.
 So we have to change our way of economic development
--from relying on cheap labor force to skilled and
qualified labor force,
--from relying on high consumption of resources to hightech advances,
--from relying on investment and export to improving
management.
1.2.3 Demand of turning China into a country
rich in human resources
 strategic arrangement of the 17 Communist Party of
China National Congress to “give priority to education
and turn China into a country rich in human resources”
 we have to enhance citizens’ overall quality, boost
educational development in a scientific way, and speed
up socialist modernization.
 The future development and great rejuvenation of the
Chinese nation are predicated on talents or
professionals, and on education.
 All those have highlighted the pressing need to
enhance citizens’ quality and cultivate innovative
personnel.
1.2.4 Meeting the needs of people’s desire for
education
 After 30 years’ rapid development, China has
popularized its compulsory education;
 the enrollment rate of senior secondary education has
reached 80%; the enrollment rate of higher education
has been increased from 7% in 1995 to 24.2% in 2009;
the average educating time has increased from 5.3
years to 9.5 years.
 However, it is not enough though. Chinese people have
more requirements for education including getting
more opportunities to enjoy higher and more qualified
education, richer and higher qualified education
provision.
2. Brief Introduction of
the Plan
2.1Procedure of Establishing the Plan
 The establishment of the Plan was first discussed
during 2007-2008. The whole procedure of
establishing the Plan can be divided into 4 stages.
 The first stage: comprehensive, from Aug. 2008 to
Feb. 2009. The survey was divided for 11 key
strategy topics and 36 sub-topics.
 The second stage: drafting, from Mar. 2009 to Feb.
2010. The drafting group was composed of over 200
talents covering scholars, leaders, administrators,
headmasters, presidents and teacher.
 The third stage: asking the public for comments,
from Feb. 28th 2010 to Mar. 28th 2010
 The last stage: revising, reviewing and approving,
from Apr. 15th 2010 to Jun.
2.2 Workload of Establishing Work
The establishment of the Plan is a huge project.
 11 key strategy topic groups, including over 500
scholars and nearly 2000 people from different
institutions
 14 related departments joined the whole procedure
and cooperated with each other
 Over 40 times of revision of the document
 Over 1,800 meetings for discussion
 Over 350,000 people joined the establishment
 Over 4,600,000 comments for the Plan
 Over 5 million words of survey reports
2.3 Framework of the Plan
The Plan is composed of 4 sections, 22
chapters, 70 terms and 27,000 words.
 SECTION I: GENERAL STRATEGY
CHAPTER 1: GUIDELINES AND EXECUTIVE PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER 2: STRATEGIC GOALS AND THEMES.
 SECTION II: DEVELOPMENT MISSIONS
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
3: PRESCHOOL EDUCATION
4: COMPULSORY EDUCATION
5: SENIOR MIDDLE SCHOOL EDUCATION
6: VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
7: HIGHER EDUCATION
8: FURTHER OR CONTINUING EDUCATION
9: EDUCATION FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES
10: SPECIAL EDUCATION
 SECTION III: EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM REFORMS
CHAPTER 11: REFORM OF CULTIVATION SYSTEM FOR TALENTS OR
PROFESSIONALS.
CHAPTER 12: REFORM OF EXAMINATIONS AND ENROLLMENT
SYSTEMS
CHAPTER 13: BUILDING A MODERN SCHOOL SYSTEM
CHAPTER 14: REFORM ON SCHOOL‐RUNNING SYSTEM
CHAPTER 15: REFORM OF EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM
CHAPTER 16: FURTHER OPENING CHINA’S EDUCATION
 SECTION IV: GUARANTEEING MEASURES
CHAPTER 17: STRENGTHENING BUILDING OF THE TEACHERS’
CONTINGENT
CHAPTER 18: ENSURING EDUCATION INPUT
CHAPTER 19: ACCELERATING INFORMATIZATION IN EDUCATION
CHAPTER 20: PROMOTING RULE OF LAW IN EDUCATION
CHAPTER 21: MAJOR PROJECTS AND PILOT REFORM PROGRAMS
CHAPTER 22: INTENSIFYING ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP
2.4 Strategic goals
 The strategic goals to be attained by the
year 2020 are to basically modernize
education, bring a learning society into
shape, and turn China into a country rich in
human resources.
1.Further Popularize education.
 preschool education-universalized
 compulsory education-consolidated and enhanced
 senior middle school education-90% gross enrolment
rate
 higher education-40% gross enrolment rate
 Twenty percent of the working-age population shall
have finished higher education by 2020, doubling
that of 2009
2. Delivering equal education to
everyone.
 13.5 year of schooling for new labor force,
and more than half of the working adults
participating in continuing education each
year.
3. Offering quality education in various
ways.
4. Building a consummate framework
for lifelong education.
 To build a lifelong learning system, with
the integration of formal education with
inform education, vocational education
with general education, and initial
education with in-service training.
5. Establishing a full-fledged, vibrant
education system.
3. Contents of TVET in the Plan
3.1 TVET terms
Chapter 6: Vocational Education
 (14) Intensifying efforts in developing
vocational education.
 (15) Mobilizing the enthusiasm of industries
and enterprises in vocational education.
 (16) Speeding up vocational education
development to meet the needs of rural
areas.
 (17) Making vocational education more
appealing.
3.2 TVET related terms
(11) Accelerating popularization of senior
middle school education.
(13) Promoting diversification of senior
middle schools.
(53) Raising teachers’ professional efficiency.
(57) Improving distribution mechanism
(66) Major projects to be organized and
undertaken
 Enhancing vocational education’s basic capacities
 Developing education for ethnic minorities.
 Providing financial aid for students from low-income
families.
 Developing national educational informatization.
 International education exchanges and cooperation.
(67) Pilot reform to be undertaken.
 Pilot reform of operation modes of vocational
education schools.
3.3 Main development tasks
and requirements
3.3.1 Speed up the universalizing of upper
secondary education
 At the upper-secondary education level, half of the
student population should be in vocational schools
and this proportion should be maintained in future.
3.3.2 Promote the development of diversified
upper secondary education
 To encourage general upper-secondary schools and
comprehensive high schools to provide more
vocational courses for their students and graduates
who failed in their entrance examination to colleges
for Vocational Education Particular
3.3.3 Greatly develop vocational education
 To develop vocational education is
---- an important way to promote economic
development, to improve employment rate, to have a
better life;
----a critical measure to relieve the tension between
supply and demand in labor market;
 So vocational education is priority among
the priorities for national development.
4. Comments and Discussion
The Plan aroused a new round reform
of TVET in China.
There will be more changes in the
field of vocational education focusing
on the following aspects.
Comments
4.1 The Plan put forward more requirements for
government and VET schools/colleges
 Requirement for the Government
 To include the vocational education into the planning of
economic-social development and industrial development,
enabling the size of vocational education, its major setting
matched with the needs of economic-social development.
 To increase the investment in vocational education, to create a
multi-channel investment mechanism for vocational education.
 To create the standard for vocational schooling
 To improve the training facilities and teacher’s quality in
vocational schools
 To improve the qualification standard for vocational schools
 To establish quality insurance system for vocational education
 To get the industry involved for quality evaluation.
 Requirement for Vocational Schools/Colleges
 The main task is to serve the industry, to provide
employment-oriented education and training by the
way of reform, so as to improve the quality of
vocational education.
 School learning should be integrated with workplace
learning, to establish internship, to be arranged by
the partnership between schools and enterprise.
 Initial vocational education should be integrated with
in-service training, full-time along with the part-time.
 School teachers integrated with master workers in the
formation of vocational teaching forces.
4.2 The Plan gives more emphasis on school and
business partnership
 To create mechanism for vocational schooling, with
support from government, guidance from the industry,
and involvement from the enterprises.
 To establish a law and a national system to promote
school-business cooperation in the delivery of vocational
education and training.
 School and Business Partnership
 To encourage the industry and enterprises to run
vocational schools
 To encourage vocational schools to be involved in staff
training in enterprises
 To establish favorable policy to encourage enterprises to
accept students and teachers for their job skill training
and working experience.
4.3 The Plan facilitates developing VET in rural
areas
 To enhance agriculture education
 To enhance the training of new farmers
 To enhance the training of new migrant workers from
rural areas
 By the way of cooperation with vocational schools in
the city, integration with basic education, adult
education in the rural villages, formation of network
of vocational training from villages to town and up to
county capital.
4.4 The Plan tries to make TVET More Attractive
 The Plan enhances the supporting policy for vocational education
so as to make vocational education more attractive.
 To introduce the system of free secondary vocational education
step by step
 To implement the policy of financial assistantship for vocational
school students from poor families
 To promote “double-qualification system” to integrating
vocational school curriculum standard with the standard of
vocational qualification
 To improve “no job without training” system, to implement
earnestly the policy of “training before employment” and
“training before working”
 To improve the continuing education system for vocational
school graduates and widen the career pathway for them
 To raise the social and economic status for skilled and highskilled workers.
4.5 The Plan improves the quality for
vocational teaching forces
 To train more “double-qualified teachers” (both in
professional knowledge and job skills)
 To improve the regulation of working experience
practice for vocational school teachers
 To reform the school staffing system, so as to
introduce more master-workers with rich working
experience to vocational schools/colleges as parttime teachers
4.6 The Plan innovates the investment
mechanism
 For the upper secondary education, senior high
schools to be invest by public funding
 Investment in upper secondary education should be
increased with the stronger government financial
power.
 While vocational schools to be funded by a multichannel investment mechanism, which is formed in
partnership with government, business sectors, big
companies and other social partners.
4.7 TVET in the Plan is mainly based on the
needs of market instead of based on the
development of students
 The function of TVET is emphasized as a method to
meet the needs of market, industries and economy.
 Actually, TVET has its original function as a way to
education qualified people and meet the needs of
diverse TVET students.
 The Plan covers less about the career development of
TVET student; cares less about giving rich provision
to meet individual needs and his/her career
development. But it does act as a base to setting up a
learning society.
4.8 The Plan focuses more on vocational
education, but less on technical education
 When it talks about TVET, the Plan focuses more on
vocational education which mainly improving skills.
It is of importance in China.
 But it is not enough. In China, we are going to build a
creative country which needs more creative talents
and personnel. Those human resources are not
cultivated only by vocational education. The more
important and relevant education in technical
education.
 The Plan should have taken more attention to how to
develop technical education in China in the coming
10 years.
Discussion
 The duration of the Plan is 10 years. In the
Plan, we are ready to conduct a series of
projects and issues about TVET in China.
 It is really a huge blueprint which will
benefit a large amount to China’s TVET, but
we still bear some worries about the
difficulties among the 10-year time period.
 Are we ready for school-industry
cooperation?
--immature industries and enterprises
--from employee-used to employee-developed
--severe obstacle for cooperation
 Are we ready for connecting TVET with
salary series?
--Building a uniformed NQF which can change
the status of TVET thoroughly
--Can Dept. of Edu & Dept. of HR and Social
Security hand-in-hand to solve the problem?

 Are we ready for reforming TVET as a
system?
--upgrading TVET level and setting up
diplomas and degrees for majors not only
for academics
 Are we ready for achieving the goals within
10 years?
--too many tasks, they are related to each
other.
--shall we pick up the most important ones
which affect TVET nowadays most?