China is now in a transition period, from the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-15) to the 13th (2016-20) and a crucial phase in the building of a "well-off” society in a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious, socialist, modern country. For this purpose it has a followed strategic action plan for vocational education over the past five years, under National Guidelines for Mid-to-Long-Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-2020).

China’s vocational schools had around 6.2 million students and its secondary schools had about 17.6 million students by 2014, bringing the overall enrollment rate at secondary schools to 86.5 percent and ushering in a new era of popular senior secondary education. At the same time, the ratio of vocational education to common education remains roughly equal, with more diverse choices for secondary education, and the structural adjustment of China’s human capital development. In 2014, the number of planned enrollment and students studying at higher vocational colleges was 3.38 million and 10.06 million respectively. As higher education becomes more popular, the enrollment of higher vocational colleges has accounted for 48.6 percent of total enrollment for higher education in 2015. And with an increasing number of degree choices for graduate students in education from 2010 to 2014, its percentage of all graduate students was 45 percent in 2014 compared with 7 percent in 2008.

And resource allocation between urban and rural areas has become more balanced, so China has 1,297 higher vocational colleges, more than 630 of them in cities at the prefecture level or below. And, of these, about 200 are at the county level. In the first three years of the guidelines’ implementation, 8.5 million children became the first generation of college students in their family.

Secondary vocational schools now have better allocation of education resources and vocational education basically covers every county and there are 1,000 State-level secondary vocational education demonstration schools, 294 of them in western areas. There are also policies to ensure fairness and sharing of educational resources, including tuition waivers, subsidies and internships.

More than 90 percent of secondary vocational school students get financial aid and their employment rate has stayed at 95 percent for nine consecutive years and 90 percent of higher vocational college graduates ha a job half a year after graduation. Nearly 76 percent of them have jobs related to their major.

The Guidelines for 2010 set two strategic goals for reforms and development – improving quality and promoting fairness -- which are key to the scientific development of China’s vocational education in the following ways:

First, there have been breakthroughs in the entrance examination system so that more secondary school graduates can continue their studies at higher vocational colleges and those graduates will have more choices for future development thanks to the linking of the two levels of schooling.

Second, with the popularization of education and training of modern farmers and the addition of care for the elderly will mean increased connection between vocational education and life-long education. And education at school and vocational training will be given equal emphasis, as will full-time and part-time schooling. About 100,000 qualified farmers enrolled in agriculture vocational schools, for an innovative mode of systematic on-the-job education with a degree.

Third, there is a state-level skills competition system for vocational college students and more than 10,000 students have taken part in the finals, along with about 5 million participants at the provincial level.

And, finally, there have been more than 70 exchange activities to help increase communications between education and other industries since 2010 and 62 steering committees for vocational education and teaching and 1,000 vocational education groups arranged, covering 60 percent of secondary vocational schools and 70 percent of higher vocational colleges.

Author: Zhou Jiqiu, a member of the national education advisory committee.