Life and Leisure

Looking to the West

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-16 08:00

Countries like Germany, Australia and the UK have a well-established system of vocational education and can point the way forward for China, says Liu Yufeng, of the Vocational Education Research Center under the Ministry of Education.

"The teachers are well paid and the students are a satisfied lot," she says. "There is a direct link between the quality of vocational education and economic growth in these countries," Liu adds.

The researcher sees years of conceptual misunderstanding of vocational education and the imperfect institutional framework as the major obstacles to the advancement of vocational education in the country.

She says there is a long tradition of life-long learning in the West, which is still to take hold in China.

Another major gap, she points out, is the poor collaboration between vocational schools and companies. It is important for the government to find ways to encourage the full involvement of companies in vocational training, she says.

Other areas that need urgent attention are improving the quality of teaching resources and setting up a quality-control system in vocational education.

Some of these ideas find expression in the final draft of the National Plan for Long-Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-2020), Liu points out. "But we still have a long way to go."