Green Skills Development in Vocational Education in the People’s Republic of China
Ⅱ. Green skills development in vocational education in China
Education is the key to promoting sustainable development and improving people’s ability to solve environmental and development problems (United Nations Agenda of 21st century). To promote sustainable social development, China’s vocational education (VE) develops green skills mainly in the following aspects. First, update the specialty catalog of vocational education. Second, put forward the requirements of green skills in specialty teaching standards. Third, green the existing courses.
The Ministry of Education revised the specialty catalog of vocational education, and the new one was released in 2021. The catalog includes 19 specialty categories, 97 sub-categories, and 1349 majors.
Among them, secondary vocational education has 358 majors, higher vocational education has 744 majors, and higher vocational undergraduate education has 247 majors.
In the newly revised vocational education catalog, there are many new green majors in secondary vocational education, higher vocational education, and higher vocational undergraduate education. Table 1 lists some newly added specialty names related to green skills in the specialty catalog of vocational education in 2021.
13) http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-04/22/content_5601515.htm
Table 1. Newly Added Green Skills Majors in the 2021 Vocational Education Catalog in China Note. http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A07/moe_953/202103/t20210319_521135.html
Specialty Secondary VE Higher VE Higher
undergraduate VE Agriculture, forestry,
animal husbandry and fishery
Forest and grass ecological protection and restoration
Intelligent agricultural technology
Resources, environment and security
Intelligent environmental protection equipment technology
Clean coal utilization project
Energy, power and materials
Fabrication technology of fabricated building components
Geothermal development technology
Power engineering and automation Intelligent
manufacturing technology of prefabricated building components
Intelligent metallurgical technology of iron and steel
Civil engineering Prefabricated building construction
Prefabricated
construction engineering technology
Urban design digital technology
Intelligent construction
technology Intelligent construction engineering
Water conservancy Intelligent monitoring and protection of water environment
Intelligent water
conservancy technology Smart water conservancy project Equipment
manufacturing Operation and
maintenance of new energy equipment
Digital design and
manufacturing technology Numerical control technology Installation, operation
and maintenance of intelligent
production line
Intelligent Electromechanical Technology
Equipment intelligent technology
Biology and chemical engineering
Green biological
manufacturing technology
Chemical Intelligent Manufacturing
Engineering Technology
Transportation Postal express
Intelligent Technology
Intelligent application technology of railway locomotive
Electronics and
information/ computer Application of
big data technology Application of blockchain
Technology Cloud computing
technology Network planning and
Optimization Technology Industrial Internet technology Finance and trade Live
e-commerce service Rural e-commerce Big data and audit Etc.
The teaching and learning standard of VE specialties is the basic requirement of VE. It stipulates the admission requirements, basic school system, teaching and learning objectives, talent specifications, curriculum structure, and arrangement of various majors. The talent specifications in China’s teaching standards VE specialty put forward the environmental protection and resource conservation requirements.
The specialty teaching and learning standards of secondary vocational schools are proposed for trial implementation, but all these areas put forward the requirements of safety awareness, energy conservation, and environmental protection awareness: specialty teaching and learning standards of the primary industry (such as tea production and processing14)), the secondary industry (such as machinery manufacturing15)), or the third industry (such as tour guide service16)).
Some specialty teaching and learning standards of higher VE not only put forward the requirements of cultivating students’ awareness of environmental protection and safety, but they also put forward the requirements that students must master relevant knowledge. They also provided suitable suggestions on curriculum offerings. For example, the teaching and learning standard of the
“mechanical manufacturing and automation specialty” in higher vocational colleges requires students to be trained in quality awareness, environmental protection awareness, safety awareness, information literacy, craftsman spirit, and innovative thinking. Moreover, students should be familiar with laws and regulations related to their specialty, environmental protection, and safety and fire fighting. The course offering proposes elective courses, expansion courses, or special lectures (activities) in safety education, social responsibility, and green environmental protection and management and integrates relevant content into the teaching of specialty courses.17)
The courses offered by some VE institutes include the concepts of environmental protection and safety awareness, cost and efficiency awareness, resource conservation, and green operation habits.
For example, a course on “equipment management of tourism enterprises” aims to develop students' skills to treat harmless waste and “master the use technology of environmental protection washing and cleaning products.” The course of “e-commerce online store planning” aims to “cultivate students’
awareness of economic benefits and improve enterprise profits as much as possible” to save resources.
The courses on “automobile engine structure and maintenance” and “automobile chassis structure and maintenance” state that “green skills can be used in the maintenance process to recycle and reuse the replaced and repaired parts.” “E-commerce logistics” for e-commerce majors requires “cultivating students’ concept and operation habits of green logistics.” The course of “port logistics management”
includes “reducing energy consumption and environmental pollution in logistics operation; dealing with dust, noise and water pollution of bulk cargo wharf in time,” and “e-commerce logistics” aims to
“cultivate students’ concept and operation habits of green logistics” (Liu, 2016).
14) http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A07/zcs_ztzl/2017_zt06/17zt06_bznr/bznr_zzjxbz/zzjxbz_nlmy/201708/P020170826586188302889.pdf 15) http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A07/zcs_ztzl/2017_zt06/17zt06_bznr/bznr_zzjxbz/zzjxbz_jgzz/201708/P020170826612392053398.pdf 16) http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A07/zcs_ztzl/2017_zt06/17zt06_bznr/bznr_zzjxbz/zzjxbz_lyfw/201708/P020170826632651589575.pdf
17) http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A07/zcs_ztzl/2017_zt06/17zt06_bznr/bznr_gzjxbz/gzjxbz_zbzzdl/zbzzdl_jxsjzzl/201907/P020190730586370851620.pdf
China’s VE system has made great efforts to develop green skills in specialty settings, specialty teaching and learning standards, and courses. Generally speaking, however, this effort still lags far behind the requirements of national sustainable development policies and plans. These gaps are mainly reflected in the following aspects. First, the understanding of the concept of green skills is not comprehensive.
Green skills have their own complete connotation, including environmental, economic, and social aspects. People’s understanding of this concept is not comprehensive, and often has only one point of view. For example, thinking green skills are equal to environmental protection. Second, the requirements for green skill development are not specific. At present, those requirements are reflected more in the objectives of the teaching standards. There are no specific requirements for how to implement them in practice. Some standards recommend only developing green skills in the form of elective courses, which are not combined well with specialty objectives and content. Third, the development of green skills lacks systematic design. For example, there is a lack of green skills development assessment tools. Fourth, there are no requirements for green skills for vocational teachers. To develop students’ green skills, teachers’ mastery of green skills is the foundation. However, at present, green skills are not regarded as necessary for vocational teacher training.
Ⅲ. Conclusion
With social progress, China’s development mode has changed from brown economic development to green economic development. Related to this, China’s vocational education system has made efforts to develop green skills. But generally speaking, that system pays more attention to developing green skills as a specialty, and the awareness of universal green skills development is not strong. Although there is advocacy, there are no clear and specific requirements for green skill development at the policy level.
There is a lack of incentives for green skill development in the vocational education system.
Sustainable development is China’s national policy and the initiative of the United Nations.
Vocational education must integrate the green concept into the whole process and all fields of vocational education. It is necessary to deepen the research further, clarify the complete connotation of green skills, and develop a consensus among the people on the connotation of green skills. It is necessary to revise the specialty catalog of vocational education and cultivate the employees needed by green occupations as soon as possible. It is necessary to integrate the green concept into the teaching and learning standards and into objectives and curriculum content so that all vocational education students can master the universal green skills. It is necessary to update the standards and training system of vocational teachers to develop their green skills and enable them to develop the green skills of their students.
References
Author
Liu, Y. (2016) Current situation, problems and suggestions of green skill development in vocational education—
Research report from 9 majors of vocational education, China Vocational and Technical Education, 30, 24–28.
Ministry of Ecological Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Bulletin on China’s Ecological Environment in 2020. https://www.mee.gov.cn/hjzl/sthjzk/zghjzkgb/
Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2021). Specialty Catalog of Vocational Education; Comparison Table of New And Old Majors in Secondary Vocational Education; Comparison Table of New And Old Majors in Higher Vocational Education; Comparison Table of New And Old Majors of Undergraduates in Higher Vocational Education, http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A07/moe_953/202103/t20210319_521135.html
Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Specialty Teaching and Learning Standards of Higher Vocational Schools. http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A07/zcs_ztzl/2017_zt06/17zt06_bznr/bznr_gzjxbz/
Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Specialty Teaching and Learning Standards of Secondary Vocational Schools. http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A07/zcs_ztzl/2017_zt06/17zt06_bznr/bznr_zzjxbz/
Dr. LIU Yufeng is a research professor at the Central Institute for Vocational & Technical Education (CIVTE), MOE, PR. China. She serves as the director of the division of International Cooperation and Comparative Education at the CIVTE. She is consultant expert of the Chinese Commission of UNESCO, and member of the national apprenticeship pilot expert committee. She was visiting scholar of Dortmund University of Germany, Australian National Center for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), and IOE of UCL, UK. As a domestic expert, Dr. LIU has participated in a number of significant national TVET policy research. She has published more than 100 academic papers and books in China and abroad. Dr. LIU’s main research areas cover TVET system and policy, life skills development, TVET curriculum and teaching，green skills development, and internationalization of TVET.