China: publication of the first five-year national plan for vocational skills training

Among the goals of the ‘special five-year plan for vocational skills training’ recently presented by the Chinese authorities, is the indication that State subsidised training courses would aim to cater to more than 75 million over the five year period (2021-2025), including 30 million rural migrant workers who are a priori the most affected by the levelling up of the Chinese economy. The plan also emphasises the need to ensure the ‘quality’ of the training, with vocational qualification certificates and/or skill level certificates being attributed at the end of the courses, along with the explicit target of eight million people undergoing the training and securing a ‘highly skilled worker’ level certification. But will this be enough? All studies of vocational education and training in China tend to highlight a serious quality problem, which has only been exacerbated by the recent explosion in poorly framed vocational training and education, and this despite a shortage of skilled labour in the manufacturing sector that is estimated to reach 30 million by 2025.