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On September 28, the MOE and the Jiangsu Provincial government held a meeting to launch a joint initiative in Nanjing, with a view to reforming vocational education in the metropolitan area of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou. Chen Baosheng, the Minister of Education, and Lou Qinjian, the Secretary of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee attended the event and delivered speeches. Wu Zhenglong, Governor of Jiangsu Province, also attended the event. Ren Zhenhe, Deputy Secretary of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, chaired the meeting.
Chen first commended the vital role that the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou metropolitan area had been playing in implementing China’s reform initiatives since the late 1970s. He said that building on the rich educational resources in the Yangtze River delta and riding on a new wave of educational reforms, the new initiative marked a new starting point for advancing vocational education and would be instrumental for meeting emerging needs in the region. He urged local educational authorities to address the pain points of vocational education and create a constructive environment where technical and vocational skills are valued by the state and society and fully leveraged in the economy. He also encouraged blazing a trail in vocational education for the new era, in full alignment with the national strategy of developing the Yangtze Delta region into a mega economic powerhouse. The minister underlined the importance of introducing more specializations to vocational education, building a stronger industry-academia/school-business alliance, and deepening educational and teaching reforms.
Lou expressed his appreciation to the MOE for supporting educational development in Jiangsu. He said that the joint initiative represented the MOE’s recognition of the progress achieved in vocational education reforms in Jiangsu, as well as its expectations of more positive outcomes. He encouraged educational departments to provide first-class vocational education tailored to local contexts, to satisfy people’s needs. To this end, he suggested focusing on building a number of leading vocational schools offering programs that were in high demand, strengthening school-business synergy, and scaling up best practices, learnt from pilot programs, across the whole metropolitan area.
Representatives from the governments of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou made presentations at the meeting. Heads of departments under the MOE, members of the Education Leading Group under the CPC Jiangsu Committee, and representatives of vocational schools attended the meeting.