Tvet In China

1. TVET IN CHINA
SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. AGNES MONTALBO
RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

2. ECONOMY OF CHINA
• China is the world’s most populous nation (1.25 billion, World Bank
2000) and is also home to a quarter of the world’s poor. (70% rural
areas)
• As a civilisation, China has demonstrated exceptional continuity over
more than two millenniums, but it has also been ‘one of the world’s
largest and fastest developing economies’ (Benewick & Wingrove 1999,
p.271). With a GDP annual growth rate of 10.1% between 1980–90,
10.7% between 1990–98, and between 7 and 8% per year since, the
economy has maintained a high rate of growth.

3. TWO DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF ECONOMIC REFORMS
• First, China’s reform has not
followed a coherent program.
Trial and error and
accommodation of different
opinions on reform strategy have
shaped the gradual and
piecemeal characteristics of
China’s industrial and urban
reform.
• The second distinctive feature of
China’s economic reform, has been its
‘experimental and bottom-up nature’.
Enterprise reforms have initially been
trialed in local areas by local
authorities and enterprises before
being implemented on a national basis.
It was local initiatives also that led to
the development of a non-state sector.
This is ‘partly due to China’s more
decentralized industrial
administration structure and fiscal
system’ (1999, p.153).

6. EDUCATION SYSTEM
• The literacy rates increasing from 78% in 1980 to 91% in 1998 for
males and from 52% to 75% for females. By 1998, illiteracy rates
had fallen to an average 1% for males, though it was still 5% for
females (WDI 2000). Almost universal enrolment (98.9%) rates in
primary schools have been achieved , with most students (94%)
proceeding to junior secondary school.

7. • Enrolment in senior secondary education has increased
from 32% in 1980 but is still only available for half of
middle school graduates. Transition to tertiary education
has increased from 2% in 1980 to about 6% in 1997 (WDI
2000). This rate is below the average among all Asian
countries and similar only to countries such as Myanmar,
Bangladesh and Vietnam.

10. VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING
• Presently the VET system consists of:
• vocational schools managed by the Ministry of Education (MOE),
• skilled worker schools managed by the Ministry of Labour and
Social Security (MOLSS), and
• technical schools managed by various departments and ministries
plus private providers (deliver VET programs at the primary,
secondary and tertiary levels.

12. • The Department of Vocational and Adult Education of the MOE, -
takes major national responsibility for VET.
• assumed responsibility for monitoring the progress of VET
initiatives under this legislation.
• takes responsibility for the national policy and planning framework
for VET.

13. • oversees a national school-based VET system of secondary
vocational schools and takes central control of the core
curriculum.
• The Central Institute for Vocational and Technical Education
(CIVoTE) in Beijing plays a role in establishing and monitoring
curriculum development projects and endorsing of curriculum
and textbooks.

14. • THANK YOU.

15. • Since 1998, management of tertiary VET has been taken on by
the Department of Higher Education (DHE) of the MOE,
previously only responsible for academic higher education. This
move reflects the importance being placed non the role of VET
at the tertiary level for both graduates of senior secondary
vocational schools and general senior secondary schools.

16. • It aims to provide higher skilled workers for the growing
‘tertiary’ industries and tertiary education options for
secondary graduates beyond the very limited places offered
by universities. Already 33.4% of all higher education
students in China are studying in tertiary VET (Liu 1999).

17. • At the provincial and municipal level, education commissions
are responsible for the school-based VET delivery system
together with general academic education.
• The Senior Secondary Vocational School Program in China is
considered to be vocational even though its emphasis has
been more on general vocational education and less on the
generation of industry-relevant vocational skills.

18. • MOLSS provides vocational training in various forms and at
various levels including:
• ✦ pre-employment training in skilled worker schools (SWSs)
• ✦ retraining of unemployed in employment training centres
(ETCs)
• ✦ apprenticeship training
• ✦ in-service training (DTE-MOLSS 1999, p.4)
• some MOLSS vocational institutions training workers for
particular industries have close funding/ governing
relationships with related industry commissions and bureaus.

20. • In developing tertiary VET institutions, the Chinese
government has explored the features of the Canadian CBE
model and the German Dual System. As well as nurturing the
traditional core qualities in learners, there has been an
emphasis on innovative ability, interpersonal skills,
adaptability, problem solving ability and practical competence.
These developments have also prompted recognition that it is
not possible to develop advanced skilled workers with access
only to school- based technical facilities and staff. There has
consequently been a move to improve co-operation between
institutions and industry.

21. FUNDING VET OF CHINA
• During 1997, funding for all vocational education and
training in the PRC totaled more than 25 billion yuan, a
growth of more than 13% from 1996 (CIVoTE 1999, p.47).
However, public expenditure on education as a proportion of
GNP at 2.3% in 1997 was well below the nine-country
median of 4.8% and the OECD-countrymean of 5.3%.

22. • In per capita terms, public expenditure on all education in
China was markedly low: only 10% the rate for Chile, 1%
the rate for Singapore and 0.8% the rate for France. The
total expenditure can be broken down by category, as shown
in table 17.
• Budget allocation is mainly at the district level with
additional funding for key schools from municipal education
commissions and the National Ministry of Education.

24. • Funding sources vary for these different levels of schools,
with national key schools able to access central MOE funds,
provincial and municipal level schools accessing relevant
government funds and district level schools gaining
additional funds from district education commissions.

25. CONTINUING EDUCATION
• SOEs offer job training to their redundant workers, and in
1996 more than 4000 enterprise-based training programs
offered a variety of courses (Fan et al. 1998). In addition,
local labour bureaus provide training for unemployed
workers and subsidise enterprise-based retraining.

26. • In 1996 there were 3500 labour bureau training
agencies and more than 4.25 million people were
enrolled across all programs, with people from rural
areas and the unemployed the largest groups of
trainees (Fan et al. 1998, p.48).

27. • During the period 1990–97, the national average
length of schooling among the population 15 years
and older rose from 6.42 years to 7.08 years, a
dramatic rise in such a huge population reflecting
the size of the effort by government authorities
(MOE 1998).

28. ISSUES
• reform of the large SOEs which were previously protected from change and nurtured with
preferential loans (Wing 1999, p.59).
• further expansion of subsidised training for the unemployed and this will need to be
closely targetted to job market needs.
• cultural bias against vocationalism and community perceptions of the value of VET are
negative.
• lack of industry participation in all aspects of development and delivery of VET reduces
the capacity of programs to effectively meet skill needs.

29. • There is a dual certification system with an absence of links between delivery and
knowledge assessment and skills certification. Methods of assessment are often
inappropriate with a strong emphasis on examinations. Educational pathways are
relatively rigid and narrow and not transparent for learners.
• the overall demand for secondary education cannot be met. Of the reported 15
million graduates from junior secondary schools, only 3.6 million can enter academic
senior high schools and only 4.2 million can enter senior secondary VET institutions.
• the capacity of VET to deliver training is not balanced across the nation. Reflecting
broader economic trends, patterns of development of education have been uneven
across China (Fukasaku et al. 1999).

30. • Rural secondary vocational schools are encountering falling interest in agricultural
courses and need to respond quickly to shifting demands. Mismatches between
government planning for student places in particular courses and the level of student
interest mean that institutions can no longer rely on state forecasting and have to
formulate their own strategies for identification of stakeholder requirements (Lumby & Li
1998).
• the challenge of meeting the needs of stakeholders and managing marketing, resources
and curriculum issues. Cheng (1994, p.199) suggests that Chinese principals of VET
institutions will ‘face the same complexities of matching the offering of the school to a
community of various stakeholders, as do UK principals’. These new challenges are being
faced without adequate financial and human resources to effectively meet them.

31. •Thank you.