In a major step towards bolstering its engineering workforce, the Chinese government held a meeting on May 10 in Tianjin to discuss the cultivation of outstanding engineers.
The meeting, attended by top officials from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Tianjin Municipal Government, emphasized the importance of implementing President Xi Jinping’s directives on education, science, technology, and talent development.
Minister of Education Huai stressed that the quantity and quality of outstanding engineers will determine the pace and caliber of China’s modernization efforts. He called for creating a favorable ecosystem for nurturing exceptional engineers by aligning training with the needs of modern economics, science, and industry. Huai also highlighted the necessity of addressing key issues in the training process, such as evaluation standards, curricula, and resource allocation.
Tianjin Mayor Zhang Gong noted that the city’s rich scientific, educational, and human resources, coupled with its strong industrial foundation, have created excellent conditions for cultivating outstanding engineers. He said that Tianjin has established four industry–education alliances, in the fields of information technology, biomedicine, marine equipment, and digital economy, respectively. The city is also accelerating implementation of an action plan for high-quality development, with the training of outstanding engineers as a critical component.
The conference also featured discussions by teams that had won the “National Engineer Award,” representatives from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), XbotPark Robotics Center, and MOE Department of Postgraduate Education. Prominent universities and industrial groups shared their experiences, highlighting collaborative efforts in engineering education.
The event brought together officials from various government departments, local education authorities, and universities, as well as representatives from 32 national outstanding engineering academies and four engineering innovation research institutes.
