China's Ministry of Education is to set up 30 information technology training bases nationwide to meet the increasing demand for technicians.

The move aimed to train more IT specialists to meet the huge demand in a labor market yearning for technicians, Yu Guangming, deputy director of the ministry's Education Management Information Center, said on Thursday.

The bases, or vocational schools, would feature programs aimed at helping would-be job seekers to better incorporate knowledge into practical skills, he said.

The training bases, which will be jointly sponsored by the center and local institutions of higher learning, would also provide advanced courses for technicians provided they had passed an aptitude test by the school, he noted.

The advanced courses included role play in working places, case analysis and job-hunting consultation classes.

The bases would also seek more partnerships with enterprises so as to give students more internship opportunities, Yu said, adding that they would help enterprises to train people based on their job requirements.

According to an earlier survey conducted by Manpower Inc., a global employment service, technicians topped the list of most in-demand jobs in the Chinese labor market in the first half of 2008.

About 15 percent of 3,900 companies surveyed had difficulty in hiring staff, including technicians, salesman, senior management staff and others, it showed.

In China, students can choose to pursue further studies in high school and then go to college after nine years of compulsory education (including six years of primary school and three years in middle school). Alternatively, they can go to vocational schools to learn applicable and useful techniques that are important for them in searching for jobs such as technicians.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)