Escaping the dreaded ‘middle-income trap’ has long been a major concern for Chinese policymakers. Improving education levels is therefore a key policy goal. But while academic enrolment has surged over the last two decades, a more important measure to increase both productivity and income could lie less in top-ranked universities and more in the country’s vocational schools. 

Scholars like Stanford’s Scott Rozelle have long pointed out the importance of education for China’s further economic development, and the country’s persistently high unemployment rate for young workers (aged between 16 and 24 years old) creates further pressure to equip young people with essential skills. Furthermore, China’s dramatic demographic decline requires a well-educated workforce which can master next-generation technologies while caring for a growing number of the elderly. 

With higher academic collaboration under geopolitical fire and online teaching heavily curtailed, vocational training offers a rare opportunity for UK educational institutions to expand their footprint in China

The Chinese government has therefore sped up its drive to improve the quality of its vocational education system, which has long been plagued by high dropout rates and low public prestige. It also revised the country’s Vocational Education Law, raising both its legal status, and encouraging international cooperation and exchange. With higher academic collaboration under geopolitical fire and online teaching heavily curtailed, vocational training offers a rare opportunity for UK educational institutions to expand their footprint in China and participate in one of the world’s fastest-growing education markets.

The state of vocational education in China

Technical and vocational education (TVE) — which accounts for 41% of total enrolment at upper secondary schools in China — has long suffered from poor quality and political neglect. It wasn’t until the Chinese government’s ambitious Made in China 2025 Strategy (MIC25) in 2014 that Chinese leaders began to pay greater attention to technical education. After all, MIC25 was modelled closely on Germany’s Industrie 4.0 strategy for the country’s ‘Mittelstand,’ which traditionally relies on vocational schools rather than universities. 

Concomitantly, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013, also saw vocational education as a potent field for global cooperation, including with the UK. In 2018, the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) and the UK Skills Federation — aided by DIT — set up a UK Sectors’ Centre for Excellence in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Education to promote exchanges between vocational schools in both countries. Several British universities, such as London South Bank University, have also launched exchange programmes with their Chinese counterparts.

Removing the social stigma around vocational education

Furthermore, the Chinese government has increased efforts to improve the attractiveness of the domestic vocational education sector. A new Vocational Education Law — which came into effect in 2020 — was revised in April 2022. The revision addresses one of the key weaknesses of TVE in China — its poor social acceptance. 

Previously, Chinese pupils, upon finishing their junior high school, were separated between general senior high schools and vocational secondary schools, with the latter usually receiving those with poorer grades. The distinction was reinforced further by the legal restrictions banning graduates from vocational high schools from enrolling at universities. This has led to the widespread perception of TVE as a dead-end venture with minimal social upward mobility. 

The 2022 revision addresses this by removing the formal distinction between the two secondary school types. Thus, Article 3 of the revised law states that ‘vocational education is a type of education that has the same important status as general education.’ 

Enrolment and graduation at Chinese TVE schools and institutes (2012-2020)

Article 13 goes on: “The state encourages foreign exchanges and cooperation in the field of vocational education, supports the introduction of overseas high-quality resources to develop vocational education, encourages qualified vocational education institutions to run schools abroad, and supports the development of various forms of mutual recognition of vocational education learning outcomes.”

The law follows the 2021 Guidelines on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Modern Vocational Education, which called for a closer alignment between general and vocational educational institutions. It is also in line with the Vocational Education Quality Improvement Action Plan (2020-2023) and its aim to establish a uniform credit and standards system, which improve both employability and make it easier for students to transfer between different institutions. 

The sector certainly needs a boost. Although there was a recent slight recovery to 12.7 million students in 2020, official statistics show that overall enrolment numbers for secondary vocational education has shrunk over the last ten years — in 2012, there were 16.9 million students. More worryingly, graduate figures — both for secondary and tertiary TVE — are far below enrolment figures, pointing to a massive dropout rate. Even Chinese media has acknowledged the problem, noting that between 2017 and 2019, 600,000 students dropped out of secondary TVE schools, a number which actually appears to be a rather conservative estimate.

The CBBC View 

While there is still a long way to go for China’s TVE levels to reach global standards, the sector is likely to see considerable growth in the coming decade. The main reason for this is the surge in investment in ‘new infrastructure’ (e.g. EV charging stations, renewable energies, IoT applications) and industrial automation. Most of these technological upgrades require advanced maintenance skills and a larger workforce of well-trained technicians. 

International cooperation in the TVE sector could therefore not only provide UK institutions with an opportunity to promote the advantages of the British educational system, but also offer a chance to be at the forefront of the next technological revolution.

Get immediate access to the China market with Launchpad, CBBC’s flagship market entry service. Call +44 (0)20 7802 2000 or email enquiries@cbbc.org now to find out more.

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“Dental nursing programmes were in their infancy in China when we first started working there,” explains Hazell Scott, International Activity Manager at NCL. “They didn’t have that qualification in China.”

After the initial partnership with a university in Inner Mongolia in 2011, additional programmes have been developed with Youjiang Medical Universities for Minorities in Guangxi and with a college in Qingdao.

“There is a new innovation park in Qingdao and they’re hoping to open a dental training school that will offer a four-month programme and give nursing graduates a training centre.”

The partnerships include the joint delivery of programmes in dental nursing with the college providing online access to non-accredited dental materials, as well as offering opportunities for staff training and student exchange.

“We have a great relationship with our partners. Over the last five years we have developed an excellent face to face relationship,” explains Scott, who travels regularly to China. “We understand how much it takes to get a quality driven approach. And this would not have been possible without our agent who understands local business culture. We have developed a trustworthy professional relationship with him and he is always looking for new opportunities for us.”

NCL provides training, assessments and licenses for dental nursing courses with the partner institute. And “once or twice a year, we have a programme for lecturers and teachers to come and train on an eight-week training programme,” explains Scott. “We also work with private colleges from October to December in order to identify teacher nurses, and are also looking at student exchange programmes for an 80-week course.”

Dental nursing programmes were in their infancy in China when we first started working there

For NCL, launching in China is part of their international strategy. Whilst this does give them additional income, it is also about internationalising the campus and building an international body of students.

“China is a huge market and this has potential to give us significant income but actually the benefits are beyond financial,” says Scott. “A lot of organisations are just out to make profit but at NCL we also have the largest European commission funded programme and work a lot with partners around student mobility and on exchange programmes that are mutually beneficial.”

NCL provides training, assessments and licenses for dental nursing courses with the partner institute

“We have an incredibly supportive board of management who are not necessarily revenue-driven, but who instead have covered all our costs for partnership exchanges and visits and have allowed us to pursue our plans with the aim of developing further opportunities in the long term.”

Acknowledging the role of CBBC in the college’s ongoing development, Scott talks of how important it is that they are “joining CBBC at this time when we are in the process of opening a new training centre. There’s a lot that’s new for us and we really need sound legal advice in order to make sure everything is ok.”

NCL was also awarded a British Council grant for their work on the Belt and Road Initiative.

“It was in line with our objectives and a recognition of our partnerships’ approach to finding innovative ways of working together.” Altogether six projects were awarded funding and NCL were only Scottish company to win it. Furthermore, they were shortlisted for two British Business Awards as well as CBBC’s China-Scotland Business Award for Education.

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