What is "new" in the new vocational education law

The new Vocational Education Law (hereinafter referred to as "the new law") came into effect on May 1, which is a recent topic of great concern in the field of education. On April 27, the Ministry of Education held a press conference to introduce the situation in detail.

The new content: more scientific expressions, reflecting the concept of quality and balanced development of all levels of education

There are many new expressions in the new law, the most discussed one is the old version of "general vocational stream", changed to "in different stages after the compulsory education stage, to promote the coordinated development of vocational education and general education according to local conditions". Some media and the public interpreted it as the abolition of the "vocational-vocational diversion" after junior high school graduation, and the topic was once on the hot search.

"This is a misinterpretation." The new expression is a more scientific and standardized expression of the development of universal vocational classification after compulsory education, which reflects the concept of high-quality and balanced development of education at all levels and also provides a legal basis for the diversified development of high-quality education in China," said Ziji, director of the Department of Vocational and Adult Education of the Ministry of Education.

Ziji said, "According to local conditions, it means that the ratio of general and vocational education should be allowed to vary in a certain range, and each place can reasonably plan the enrollment scale of vocational schools and general schools according to the degree of regional social development, the needs of local industrial development and the construction of modern vocational education system. Coordinated development means that vocational education and general education are equally important, there is no difference between the high and low, superior and inferior of these two types of education, it only has the integration of the mode of schooling and the difference in the way of educating people. The implementation of 'general vocational coordinated development' after compulsory education is not the abolition of secondary vocational education, but to change the development of secondary vocational education, to achieve a fundamental shift in the operation of secondary vocational education, the focus is to improve the quality of secondary vocational education itself, to broaden the channel for secondary vocational education students to grow and become successful. "

Another noteworthy change in the expression is that the original vocational education law the purpose of vocational education expressed as "training technical skills personnel", the new version expressed it as "training high-quality technical skills personnel", a major conceptual breakthrough to the community conveyed This breakthrough in the concept conveys the meaning of "equal importance" to the society.

Deng Chuanhuai, director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Education, said, "Positioning vocational education and general education as two different types of education is the basis for building a legal system for vocational education. The new law stipulates that vocational education is a type of education with the same importance as general education; stipulates that the state coordinates to promote the coordinated development of vocational education and general education; stipulates that vocational education is to cultivate high-quality technical and skilled talents; and stipulates that vocational school students enjoy equal opportunities with students of ordinary schools at the same level in terms of further education, employment, and career development."

New space: the "overpass" between vocational education and general education has a legal basis

The public is concerned about the "vocational and general education diversion", one important reason is that the rising channel of secondary vocational education students is not smooth. At the same time, the upward mobility of senior vocational students is also very limited. The vocational education sector has been calling for many years: to open up the upward passage and build up the "overpass" between vocational education and general education.

"The new law makes provisions to improve the recognition and attractiveness, enhance the social fit and adaptability. The new law requires that secondary vocational education as the basic education of the application-oriented talent training system, focusing on higher vocational education with a solid foundation of technical skills and a qualified cultural foundation of students, highlighting the educational function of secondary education, enhance the recognition, so that vocational education become the type of education with the ability to employ, the advantages of further education, development channels." Chen Ziji said.

Ziji introduced, "The new law stipulates that the relevant majors of secondary vocational schools implement the enrollment and training through with higher vocational school education; higher vocational schools and general higher schools implementing vocational education should determine the corresponding proportion in the enrollment plan or adopt the method of separate examination to specifically recruit vocational school graduates."

This means that there is a channel between secondary school students and "undergraduates". It is no longer a low-level "working education", but a cradle for "providing students with different talents with multiple possibilities of success".

Promoting vocational undergraduate education is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Education in 2022, and the Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Modern Vocational Education in 2021 calls for "the enrollment of vocational undergraduate education to be no less than 10% of the enrollment of higher vocational education" by 2025.

"In addition to the establishment of undergraduate vocational schools, the new law also leaves room for exploration in two areas: first, the establishment of undergraduate vocational education programs in general higher education schools, and second, the establishment of undergraduate vocational education programs in specialist-level vocational schools. These are good indications that vocational school students can not only study college but also go to undergraduate school, from the legal level to open up the development channel for vocational school students, to secondary vocational school students to go to university, which will certainly significantly enhance the enthusiasm of students to attend secondary vocational schools." Ziji said.

New guarantee: legal form to crack the stubborn miasma of vocational education reform and development

"With the vocational education reform into the hard period and deep water, some of the hard bones affecting the development of the cause have been unable to get around. This amendment to the law to face the persistent miasma of vocational education reform and development, the form of law to crack the way fixed, to further deepen the reform to provide legal support and institutional safeguards." Chen Ziji said.

One of the so-called hard bones of Ziji is the management system. Previously, the administrative department of education managed vocational schools, and human resources and social security departments managed vocational training, coupled with the need to coordinate local governments and enterprises, it is difficult to promote the implementation of many tasks. The new law clarifies that the State Council established a coordination mechanism for vocational education, the coordination of national vocational education work. Some industry experts believe that the new law will be the biggest problem solved.

Outside of the management system, another guarantee is a financial investment.

According to the statistics from UNESCO, the cost of vocational education is about three times of general education. It is understood that the number of enrollments in higher education in China is more than half of the whole higher education, but the direct financial input only accounts for about 20%.

The new law clarifies the key support, local-oriented investment mechanism.

"The new law stipulates that the state optimizes the structure of education expenditure so that the investment in vocational education is commensurate with the development needs of vocational education, and encourages the raising of funds for the development of vocational education through a variety of channels by the law; the provincial people's governments set the average per capita funding standard for vocational schools in their regions, and the organizers of vocational schools allocate funds on time and in full by the average per capita funding standard to continuously improve school running conditions." Chen Ziji said.

The new law also encourages enterprises to organize vocational education, but also requires deep participation in the integration of industry and education, school-enterprise cooperation in enterprises to give incentives, tax concessions, and other policy incentives.

Industry-education integration and school-enterprise cooperation is the basic mode of vocational education, but also the key to running a good vocational education. However, for a long time, the integration of industry and education does not fit, school-enterprise cooperation is not deep and not real is a pain point, but also a blockage.

"The new law with 9 'encourage', 23 'should' and 4 'must', to further clarify the many initiatives, really from the legal level so that Enterprise participation is not difficult and beneficial to participate." Chen Ziji said.

It is worth mentioning that the amended Vocational Education Law clarifies that enterprises can cooperate in various forms such as co-organizing vocational education institutions with vocational schools and vocational training institutions.

This means that the government supports social forces to organize vocational education.

In addition, the new law also clarifies the obligations and responsibilities of trade unions, China Vocational Education Society, and other group organizations in the development of vocational education, including participating in the development of vocational education professional catalogs and relevant vocational education standards, carrying out talent demand forecasting, and fostering industry-education integration service organizations that match supply and demand.

Fang Nai-Chun, secretary of the party group and director general of the Chinese Vocational Education Society, said, "This effectively reflects the diversified cross-border characteristics of vocational education and is believed to better promote the integration of resources and the same direction of effort between the government and various parties to create a new situation."