Masters to train apprentices to improve civic services

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has launched a campaign to select highly skilled "masters" from numerous trades, services, professions and industries who will be charged with mentoring a new generation of masters and help improve civil administration.

Every municipality, province and autonomous region has been asked to recommend their masters before Friday. They can include experienced people who work for child welfare associations or nursing homes. And people with special skills such as prosthetic makers, disaster relief coordinators and emergency rescue workers are also listed, said a notice on the authority's official website Monday.

The master will be given a onetime subsidy of 100,000 yuan ($16,060) from the ministry, which is to be used to mentor eight professionals in their field each year. The ministry, which could not be reached for comment, is apparently expecting local governments to cover other costs.

Wang Hongjie, the director of the Shanghai Funeral and Interment Service Center, said the master program will make up for the shortage of talent in the industry. "Local mortuaries and cemeteries need young professionals. Such a program will give masters an opportunity to train apprentices," he told the Global Times, adding that he plans to recommend a skilled mortician as a master.

"The masters will help pass their skills to next generation," Lü Chunlin, director of the funeral and interment management office under Shanghai Municipal Bureau, told the Global Times.

"The program will further strengthen management over master offices and promote exchanges between offices from different areas," Lü said.

The ministry also plans to build a series of offices from which masters will work with the aim of improving the country's growing demand for improved civic and professional services. By 2015, senior professionals will account for a quarter of all employees in civil affairs. By 2020 that number is expected to jump to 28 percent.

The ministry plans a huge increase in the number of senior professionals, with the number of senior nurses increasing from 30,000 in 2010 to 6 million by 2020 and the number of disaster relief coordinators is expected to jump from 33,000 to 750,000.

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