Vocational education is booming and listed companies are cross-border “coaching”

Despite the scorching sun, there is still an endless stream of students and parents going to Yangzhou Intelligent Technology Technical School for consultation and registration. Liang Yao, Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice Chairman of Yangjie Technology, told a reporter from the Securities Times on July 25: This is the first year of large-scale enrollment, and the latest number of registered students has exceeded 500.

Yangzhou Intelligent Technology Technical School is a vocational skills school created by Yangjie Technology, an A-share power semiconductor company. It is also an epitome of the state's encouragement of listed companies and industry leading enterprises to organize vocational education. Especially with the official implementation of the newly revised Vocational Education Law (hereinafter referred to as the new Vocational Education Law) in May this year, it was clarified for the first time that vocational education and general education have the same important status. The subjects participating in vocational education have changed from traditional private higher education to Gradually expand to listed companies in various industries.

The reporter learned from the interview that in the field of vocational education, listed companies are using their respective expertise to explore new paths for the integration of industry and education, creating a through train from educating people to employing people, trying to break the hidden threshold and crack the current situation The embarrassing situation is that it is difficult for students to find employment and it is difficult for companies to recruit workers.

Eclectic education of talents

Two kilometers to the north from the Slender West Lake Scenic Area and only 3 kilometers away from Yangjie Technology Headquarters is the new campus of Yangzhou Intelligent Technology Technical School (hereinafter referred to as Yangzhou smart) location.

When the reporter visited Yangzhou Smart, the school's renovation and upgrading work was in full swing, and the training building became the focus of the renovation: the building will include JD.com's e-commerce room, artificial intelligence training room, photovoltaic application laboratory training room, semiconductor application training room, new energy vehicle training room, etc.

We now only have two months to ensure that all construction work is completed before the start of the fall semester. Principal Yan Jianfeng emphasized.

Yangjie Technology is a domestic semiconductor discrete device IDM manufacturer, and its subsidiary Yangzhou Intelligence has a history of 36 years of running schools.

According to the reporter’s understanding, Yangjie Technology began to try to cooperate in running schools in 2017. It acquired the former Yangzhou Pacific Heavy Industry Technical School in 2020 and officially changed its name to Yangzhou Intelligence in May this year.

Yan Jianfeng told a reporter from the Securities Times that Yangzhou Intelligent is the only technical school in the province with the word "intelligent technology", which reflects the school's educational attributes and direction. We will create a school that is in line with the country's advanced manufacturing and Majors required by the digital economy industry. The enrollment plan for targeted training majors shows that the school’s training directions include online live broadcasting, rural e-commerce, semiconductors, photovoltaics, industrial robot technology and new energy vehicle maintenance, etc., and cooperative companies include JD.com, JA Solar Technology, ZTE Communications, Yangjie Technology, etc. listed companies.

On June 17, Yangzhou Intelligent and JD.com announced their cooperation to build a digital industry college. Yang Cheng, general manager of JD.com’s national school-enterprise cooperation, said at the time: The integration of industry and education is to solve the gap between talent training and industry needs. The key to the connection problem.

In addition to Yangjie Technology, Jin Baize develops vocational education based on the electronic information industry and regards it as one of the company's important strategic sectors. Wu Shumei, secretary of the company's board of directors, told reporters that based on the company's advantages such as the company's electronic product hardware innovative design and manufacturing public service platform capabilities, Jin Baize established the Jiajian Science and Engineering Teaching and Research Institute, established a team of experts and teachers, carried out school-enterprise cooperation, compiled teaching materials and Establish a curriculum system to provide services for the electronic circuit industry in the formulation of talent standards, talent training, talent evaluation and certification, etc.

In June this year, Jinbaize signed a contract with the Talent Exchange Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and established the jointly constructed electronic circuit industry talent base for industry and information technology, which is an important beginning for the construction of Jinbaize’s national electronic circuit training base. .

With the continuous development of policies, the status of vocational education in the education system has gradually improved. In the newly revised "Vocational Education Law" implemented in May this year, the legislation clarified for the first time that vocational education and general education have the same important status, promoting the transformation of vocational education from level education to type education; and the new Vocational Education Law emphasizes the implementation of enterprises in vocational education The main position in education proposes to promote enterprises to deeply participate in vocational education and encourage enterprises to organize high-quality vocational education.

Listed companies are motivated to teach and choose to lay out vocational education tracks based on the industry and company characteristics.

Recently, I Miss You stated on the interactive platform that the company will continue to connect the training channels from technical secondary school to junior college and then to undergraduate, and complete the construction of a systematic vocational education system from technical secondary school to junior college to undergraduate; Soft Control Co., Ltd. Qingdao Rubber Tire Engineering College was founded with the purpose of cultivating a large number of professional engineering and technical talents needed for enterprises in the process of expanding scale, improving quality, and technological innovation; in addition, Zhengzhou Jiian Vocational Skills Training School Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Jiian High-tech The company is still in the preparatory stage. The company stated that the main purpose of this investment is to improve the company's business layout, cooperate with the company's strategic planning, and fill in the company's business shortcomings, so that the company can better participate in the national vocational education reform.

In its reply to investors, iSoftStone also stated that in the field of education, the company’s business planning focuses on carrying out internship training and vocational education and training, and connecting the last mile of talent training in schools with corporate needs, including targeting colleges and universities. Carry out school-enterprise cooperation business such as internship training, professional training, laboratory construction, etc.; carry out talent supply services for enterprises, connect with local enterprises and universities, and carry out targeted talent resource transfer; rely on various resources to carry out local development Skills training, etc.

Listed companies take the lead in running schools:

From self-use to other uses

Different from private schools with traditional education backgrounds, listed companies build schools, run schools, and lay out vocational The original intention of education was initially more to meet the company's own employment needs.

At that time, it was based on charity as its original intention to recruit poor students, train them for free and help them solve their jobs. Liang Yao, Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice Chairman of Yangjie Technology, talked to reporters about the original intention of running the school. She admitted that the company started trying to run the school five years ago. Previously, it mainly trained production line technicians for itself.

The Securities Times reporter learned that Yangjie Technology also founded Jiangxi Yangjie Electronic Technology College in Shangrao City in 2017. Both schools in Yangzhou and Shangrao have implemented the three-free and one-package policy. , that is, a school-running model that provides free tuition, free accommodation, free meals, and guaranteed employment in a listed company. At that time, there were not many students enrolled, mainly from remote areas such as Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan. After graduation, about half of them went to work in Yangjie Technology, while the other students chose to return to their hometowns for employment according to their personal wishes.

In the process of running the school, Yangjie Technology found that there was a huge gap in professional and technical personnel in the entire society, so it decided to make vocational education an important strategic development direction of the company.

The new "Vocational Education Law" has strengthened our confidence in establishing vocational education. This year is the first year of large-scale enrollment, and the latest number of registered students has exceeded 500. Liang Yao said.

China is a global manufacturing powerhouse and also has the world's largest vocational education system, producing an average of 10 million graduates every year, but the proportion of vocational skilled talents is low. Statistics show that the proportion of domestic skilled talents in the total labor force is less than 30%, far behind the 70 to 80% ratio in manufacturing powerhouses such as Germany and Japan. Moreover, skilled talents face a huge gap. Even in this year’s employment winter, vocational education Talent remains in short supply.

According to statistics, in the recruitment of graduates of Shenzhen Vocational and Technical College for the class of 2022, the company's recruitment ratio is about 7; at Beijing Electronic Technology Vocational College, the annual ratio of the number of recommended positions by the school to the number of graduates is about 15:1 on average. A report released this year by the BOSS Direct Recruitment Research Institute shows that the scale of recruitment in high-end manufacturing fields such as new energy, aerospace, integrated circuits, and industrial automation has grown rapidly, with a year-on-year increase of more than 40%, and supply exceeds demand.

The reporter also discovered during the interview that new energy, semiconductor and other industries are even more hungry for professional and technical talents.

In the popular new energy power battery track, one of the world's leading mainstream suppliers of laser welding equipment is also experiencing a labor shortage. Company executives complained to reporters that because the supplier of upstream smoke pipe parts could not recruit welding workers, the company was forced to roll up its sleeves and carry out automation transformation. Now when hiring a mature welder in Shenzhen, the salary has to be 15,000 yuan. Executives of listed companies told reporters.

Cronos, which is engaged in ultra-precision linear motor motion platforms, is rapidly expanding its production. The company's products serve many industries such as lithium batteries, photovoltaics, and semiconductor equipment. The company also recruits talents with high salaries. The person in charge of the company also revealed to reporters that there is currently no difficulty in recruiting workers. The salary of the technical employees recruited by the company increases with their rank. Usually, after working for more than a year, the salary will soon exceed 10,000 yuan.

Not only grassroots professional and technical workers, but also the shortage of engineers has attracted much attention. An executive of a leading chip IP licensing company talked about personnel turnover and gave turnover rate data: the average level in the industry is 12, and the company maintains a turnover rate of 6.8, which is far lower than the industry level. The employees our company has worked so hard to train are poached by headhunters at double the price.

Kuang-Chi Technology Chairman Liu Ruopeng pointed out in a previous interview with reporters: The engineer shortage is the result of the disconnect between my country's rapid industrial development and innovative talents, and must be resolved as soon as possible. Liu Ruopeng suggested that we should speed up the training of engineering masters and engineering doctors, and form a certain quantitative scale, give full play to the scientific and technological resources and initiative of high-tech enterprises and scientific research institutes, and cultivate our country's economic and technological development in a targeted manner. Urgently needed, high-end engineering and technical professionals.

In terms of cultivating high-end professional talents, corporate technology, capital and other advantages and capabilities can also be fully utilized. In October last year, the "Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Modern Vocational Education" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council clearly pointed out that it is necessary to focus on major national strategies and closely align with industrial upgrading. and technological change trends, give priority to the development of a number of emerging majors needed by industries such as advanced manufacturing, new energy, new materials, modern agriculture, modern information technology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, etc., and encourage schools to offer more majors that are in short supply and meet market demand. , forming a professional system that closely connects the industrial chain and innovation chain.

Improving the teaching system

Opening up the last mile of integration of industry and education

Facing the multiple demands of enterprises, industries and markets, listed companies choose to lead the vocational education market .

Xiong Bingqi, dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told a reporter from the Securities Times that the new vocational education law encourages social forces, including listed companies and industrial enterprises, to run vocational education and promote industrial development with enterprises as the main body. Teaching integration, school-enterprise cooperation and even order-based training can improve the quality of vocational education and at the same time deliver high-quality skilled talents to enterprises. This is the starting point for listed companies and industry enterprises.

In Xiong Bingqi’s view, the need to implement in-depth integration of industry and education, order-based training, and school-enterprise cooperation must be due to the urgent demand of enterprises for talents. Moreover, the most important mission of vocational education is to cultivate suitable high-skilled talents for industrial development.

Looking at the entire education industry, vocational education-related companies have grown significantly in recent years. Tianyancha data shows that in 2016, the number of registered vocational education companies exceeded 1,000 for the first time; in 2019, the number of registrations exceeded 2,000; in 2020, more than 2,700 new companies were added, reaching a historical peak; in 2021, the number of registrations declined, with more than 2,300 new companies still added Home. Since the beginning of this year, my country has added nearly 400 new vocational education-related companies.

Affected by education industry policies such as double cuts and suspension of transfers in 2021, the education and training industry has been severely hit, while vocational education investment and financing has suddenly emerged. According to the "2022 China Vocational Education Industry Report" released by Duojing Education Research Institute, there were 61 financings in the primary vocational education market. The number of financings exceeded the total number in 2020, and the total amount of financing exceeded 7.8 billion yuan; according to Blackboard According to Insight Statistics, from January to April 2022, 53 companies in the education industry received financing. Nearly half of these are vocational education companies.

However, the vocational education industry still faces many invisible thresholds.

According to the "Large-scale Questionnaire Survey Report on the Development of Vocational Education in China" released by "Educator" magazine in 2021, the interviewed students and parents all considered social recognition when choosing the biggest difficulties facing the development of vocational education. Be at the forefront.

In addition, a national secondary vocational education satisfaction evaluation report released by the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences in 2020 shows that secondary vocational graduates face many employment barriers, unequal pay for equal work, limited career development space, and high turnover rates. Employment stability is low.

From a system perspective, the newly revised Vocational Education Law clarifies that higher vocational school education is implemented by higher vocational schools and general colleges and universities at the junior college, undergraduate and above education levels. This means that vocational education will form a through train from vocational school, junior college, undergraduate to graduate school. Among them, undergraduate-level vocational education has attracted even more attention. At present, there are 32 undergraduate-level vocational schools in the country, with a total of 129,300 vocational undergraduate students. According to the goal proposed in the "Opinions": by 2025, the enrollment scale of vocational undergraduate education will not be less than 10% of the enrollment scale of higher vocational education. , the attractiveness and training quality of vocational education are expected to be significantly improved.

Wu Shumei, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Jin Baize, said that the newly revised Vocational Education Law has just been promulgated, and the implementation of the new policy will take time to buffer. There are shortcomings such as the social recognition of vocational education has not yet become widespread, and the overall market investment is not large. The status and remuneration of technical and skilled talents need to be improved, and the "invisible threshold" of employment needs to be gradually eliminated.

For the electronic circuit industry, Wu Shumei said that industry transformation has put forward higher requirements for the construction of industry talent standards, professional skills training, talent evaluation and other aspects. Improving the vocational education system and enriching vocational education models will have a great impact on the industry. Talent development is very important. At present, the company has in-depth cooperation with higher vocational colleges and has established a professional and teaching system, aiming to greatly improve both quantity and quality.