In the 2025, Issue 1 ofXinhua Digest, the paper titled “How Vocational Education Supports the Construction of a Skilled Society” authored by the research team led by Vice Secretary of the Party Committee and President Xu Jianling, was fully reprinted. The paper, originally published in theResearch in Higher Education of Engineering (CSSCI) in its 2024, Issue 4, is co-authored by Xu Jianling, Wang Xing, Li Liangli, Qing Zhongquan, and Bian Fei.

The article points out that the fundamental task of vocational education is to cultivate high-quality, highly skilled talents and provide strong human resource support for the construction of a skilled society. The research conducted an empirical survey of 15 vocational schools in 14 provinces and cities across China’s eastern, central, and western regions, as well as industry-academia cooperation enterprises, and local human resource and education departments. The study examined the skills training of vocational school students from the perspectives of direct and indirect investment. The survey revealed that students are highly engaged in their academic tasks, but less involved in extracurricular activities. Students show high recognition of skill learning, but lower recognition of vocational education, and also have insufficient confidence and understanding of their future careers. The research found that the schools’ skill cultivation faces a linear dilemma, with insufficient depth in the integration of theory and practice. The proportion of “dual-qualified” teachers is imbalanced among different types of schools, and the overall research capability of the faculty is relatively low. The effectiveness of teacher-student interactions is also not high. The article suggests that to effectively support the construction of a skilled society from the perspective of skills training, vocational education should adopt a broad view of vocational education. Efforts should focus on improving the quality of skilled talent cultivation, promoting the digital transformation of vocational education, implementing reforms in the core elements of vocational school operations, and enhancing the adaptability of vocational education. This will empower the continuous development of new productive forces and create a new ecosystem that supports the construction of a skilled society.

This paper is a stage research result of the China Academy of Engineering’s strategic research and consulting project “Building a Modern Vocational Education System Supporting the Construction of a Skilled Society” (Project No. 2023-XY-53). The research team consists of 15 members from specialized, interdisciplinary fields, including education, economics, and sociology. The project leader is Xu Jianling, and the core research members are from the New-Era TVET Institute of China, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, and the School of Sociology at Nankai University, along with three academicians and one well-known national vocational education expert as advisors. The project was initiated in 2023 and completed in June 2024. The research team conducted extensive and in-depth research over the course of one year, resulting in a high-level research report that deeply analyzed the key issues facing China’s current vocational education in supporting the construction of a skilled society. It provided practical policy recommendations, which are of significant theoretical and practical importance for enhancing the adaptability of vocational education, supporting the construction of a skilled society, and promoting the realization of China’s modernization with a massive population and common prosperity for all. The research team has published 8 academic papers on the topic, including 4 papers in CSSCI source journals and 4 papers in Peking University core journals.

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(New-Era TVET Institute of China)