Colleges shift gears in changing job market

Vocational colleges in China established more than 3,000 new programs last year to meet the demand of emerging sectors and to cater to people's needs, said a report released on Wednesday.

Computer science is popular among students in vocational colleges in China. [CHEN SHICHUAN/CHINA DAILY]

The programs subjects, such as the Internet of Things, senior care, community administration, new energy and urban transit, are urgently needed to accommodate plans for industrial upgrading and economic transformation, according to the 2015 report on the quality of China's higher vocational education.

This is the fourth time the annual report has been released by the National Joint Conference of Vocational Technical College Presidents, a nongovernmental organization linking nearly 200 vocational colleges and concentrating on the development of higher vocational education in China.

However, the report found that although 3,265 programs were created last year, 5,269 others were eliminated or stopped recruiting students.

"Most of those had encountered fierce competition from similar programs, couldn't meet the demand of related sectors and had very low employment rates among their graduates, such as secretarial or legal affairs programs," the report said.

Ma Shuchao, an education expert with the conference, said the changes in programs resulted from technical development and industrial upgrading.

"The upgrading and changes in industries are rapid, which leads to a drop in the number of hands needed in some traditional sectors," said Ma, who is also a deputy director of the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences.

"Vocational colleges, as institutions that cultivate talent for industries, are sensitive to these changes and in consequence canceled some programs while adding a few others because of the needs of the market," he said.

Chen Jianmin, president of Beijing Polytechnic College, said several adjustments have been made to programs since the college started to offer higher vocational education in 1994.

He said the college used to nurture talent for some of Beijing's heavy industrial enterprises, such as iron company Shougang Group. However, since these types of enterprises have been moving out of Beijing, the college canceled the programs.

"Now we have set up some new programs to serve the needs of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional integration, such as ones on electronic information engineering, electric automation technology for urban transit, and so on," Chen said. "They are very popular."