Premier Li urges vocational education development

2017-09-09
english.gov.cn

Premier Li Keqiang called for efforts to improve vocational education and cultivate quality teaching staff in this area when visiting the Tianjin University of Technology and Education on Sept 8, two days before the 33rd Teachers’ Day that falls on Sept 10.

The university was the first in China to train teaching staff in vocational education. During his visit, the Premier was briefed on educational progress in Tianjin and the teaching methods used in the university.

A school official told him the university has been cooperating with enterprises under an order-type cultivation mode, and allowing free or reduced tuition fees for students from the country’s western or remote areas. Besides, for 10 consecutive years, the employment rate of the graduates has surpassed 90 percent.

Premier Li praised the university as a good incubator for vocational education, and encouraged it to make contribution to higher-quality education and talent cultivation.

“Both as teachers and master craftsmen, you have to target advanced international technologies and ideas, broaden your horizons and solidify the foundation, to cultivate more craftsmen with expertise and lift made-in-China products to a higher level,” Premier Li told the students.

At the teaching site for digital manufacturing, after seeing products developed by students used for unmanned factories, Premier Li said it is important for students to receive practical training.

It is necessary to combine knowledge in books and practical skills if you want to improve the educational level, he said.

The university boasts dozens of technical masters and has set up a national-level master studio with its cooperating enterprises.

Premier Li spoke highly of the precise products innovated by the studio, saying that innovation-driven development requires not only innovation, but the ability to transform good ideas to high-quality products.

“Some of our technologies are refined, but they tend to underperform once put into mass production, which will undercut consumers’ confidence in made-in-China products,” the Premier said.

He said he hopes that more quality professionals can be cultivated with the help of highly skilled technicians and by developing modern vocational education.

The craftsmanship spirit can penetrate every procedure in production — no matter in big factories or small workshops — to strongly bolster the development of Chinese products.

Premier Li extended greetings to teachers for the upcoming Teachers’ Day, calling for the whole society to carry forward the spirit of respecting teachers, and to make joint efforts to enhance education, including vocational education, while cultivating students with general knowledge and expertise, in a bid to lay a solid human resource foundation for the healthy development of the country.

Vice-Premier Liu Yandong and State Councilor Yang Jing also inspected the university.