Premier Wen Jiabao's invitation to experts to discuss the development of vocational training early this month sends a clear message that it has been placed on the central government's agenda.

The decision to earmark 14 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) for the expansion and strengthening of technical and polytechnic schools nationwide in the 11th Five-Year-Plan period (2006-10) confirms the urgent need to upgrade vocational training to meet the country's development needs.

In spite of the 4.6 per cent unemployment rate and nearly 2 million jobless university graduates, technical workers are in short supply on the job market.

It is apparent that vocational education is underdeveloped and does not match the speed of economic growth.

Its underdevelopment has resulted in the low quality of workers in the manufacturing industry, and has thus created a bottleneck characterized by low-end products, over-consumption of energy resources and frequent workplace accidents.

In this sense, undesirable vocational training has made a dent in economic development and social progress.

The biased perception of many parents that obtaining a university degree is the key to a successful career has partially contributed to this situation.

With this mentality, many parents push their children to seek higher education without giving enough thought to what their children will do and what is most suitable for them to do in the future.

The preoccupation of many local governments with the development of colleges to meet such needs has resulted in the number of university students soaring from 6 million in 1998 to the current 17 million.

At the same time, the development of vocational training has been neglected, with the number of students at polytechnic and technical schools dwindling from 14.31 million in 1998 to the current 11.64 million.

The lack of awareness of vocational training's role in overall development on the part of local governments is primarily to blame for its underdevelopment in the past decades.

The central government's move to repair the damage will be difficult to achieve unless governments at various levels change their deeply rooted preconception that higher education is superior to vocational training.

Just as Premier Wen stressed at the discussion, local governments' awareness of the role of vocational training is pivotal to the future development of this sector.

Of the nation's entire workforce in the manufacturing industry, less than one-third of workers have received vocational training.

Vocational training, if properly developed, will help raise the standard of millions of workers.

And if it can be extended to the millions of surplus rural labourers waiting to be recruited, it can change their fate.

Source: China Daily