The Ministry of Education and the Zhejiang provincial government have jointly published a guideline to further integrate vocational education and private economy in the Zhejiang cities of Wenzhou and Taizhou, which received approval to pilot a national reform on vocational education.
Enterprises are encouraged to participate in vocational education
According to the guideline, Wenzhou and Taizhou will establish negative lists for enterprises to engage in running vocational training schools and include this engagement in the official evaluations of their fulfillment of corporate social responsibility.
Local authorities will reward private companies that have engaged in vocational education in various forms such as subsidies, preferential taxation, and favorable financing conditions.
Privately-owned vocational schools with good reputations are eligible to enjoy concessionary rental rates for their new campuses.
Public-private partnership (PPP) mode will be spread across the two cities to introduce social capital to construct and operate educational infrastructure.
Development goals by 2022
The guideline listed numerous targets for the two cities' vocational education sector to achieve by 2022.
The two cities are expected to own at least 200 city-recognized and 20 province-recognized enterprises that feature the integration of industrial manufacturing and vocational education.
Taking advantage of their strength in conventional manufacturing sectors such as leather, garment, low-voltage apparatus, eyeglasses and auto parts, the two cities are expected to operate one to two vocational education groups of national acclaim.
