In the context of accelerating the construction of an education powerhouse, vocational education bears the important responsibility of cultivating highly skilled craftsmen and supporting industrial upgrading. How can vocational education precisely align with industry needs and cultivate high-skilled talent in the process of serving the manufacturing powerhouse strategy and regional development? Recently, in the column “Vocational Education in the Construction of an Education Powerhouse,” jointly planned by the Department of Vocational and Adult Education of the Ministry of Education and Xinhua Net, an interview was conducted with Xu Jianling, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Shenzhen Polytechnic University. President Xu shared the university’s practical explorations and experiences on relevant topics.

Xu Jianling stated that vocational education should resonate in step with industrial transformation. Its core development direction lies in precisely aligning with industry demands and, through deepened industry-education integration, providing solid talent support for the manufacturing powerhouse strategy and regional economic development. Adhering to the guiding principle of “building programs on industrial chains,” Shenzhen Polytechnic University has closely aligned with the manufacturing powerhouse strategy, Guangdong Province’s manufacturing development plan, and Shenzhen’s “20+8” industrial cluster requirements. The university has added 26 new programs and upgraded 2 existing ones, achieving synchronized advancement between talent cultivation and industrial change.

With industry-education integration as its core pathway, the university has promoted teaching innovation across multiple dimensions: It has tracked industrial dynamics in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, benchmarked against emerging technologies such asHarmonyOS andopenEuler, and developed 414 new courses along with over 1,000 technical skills training packages; constructed 384 teaching scenarios based on actual industrial settings to reform teaching methods; and jointly developed the digital textbookCangjieProgramming Technology and Application with enterprises such as Huawei. This textbook was selected as one of the first batch of digital textbooks for high-skilled talent cultivation by the Ministry of Education, has been adopted by 8 institutions, and is planned for adoption by more than 30 additional institutions.

In talent cultivation and faculty development, the university currently employs over 1,600 full-time teachers, with more than 50% holding doctoral degrees and over 540 identified as high-level talents. In the past three years, more than 27% of graduates have joined leading enterprises such as Huawei, Tencent, and BYD, as well as related units in their industrial chains, with employment rates and employer satisfaction remaining consistently high.

School-enterprise cooperation and international development have yielded remarkable results: The university has established 16 distinctive industry faculties, with related cooperation models promoted by the National Development and Reform Commission; founded China’s first English-language vocational education journal; set up 14 digital workshops in 11 countries; and developed 23 industry and professional standards that have been recognized and adopted by 14 countries, effectively facilitating the cross-border application of vocational education outcomes.

(Source: Xinhua Net)