MCLC: trade schools offer hope to migrants

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: trade schools offer hope to migrants
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (6/2/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/world/asia/trade-schools-offer-hope-for-r
ural-migrants-in-china.html

Trade Schools Offer Hope for Rural Migrants in China
By CORRINE DILLON

BEIJING — When he was 14, Li Yangyang’s prospects were grim. A middle
school graduate who moved to Beijing with his parents from the countryside
in 2009, he worked long hours in a restaurant for less than 700 renminbi a
month.

Then a fellow rural migrant, who had also moved to Beijing, introduced him
to BN Vocational School <http://en.bnvs.cn/>, China’s first tuition-free,
nonprofit vocational secondary school.

Now 17, Mr. Li is studying hotel management and hoping to enter an
industry in which the starting salary is more than triple his old wage of
about $100 a month. “I feel lucky to be at B.N.V.S.,” he said, as he
prepared to apply for internships at the capital’s luxury hotels. “My
future is much brighter, and I have more opportunities because of it.”

For those like Mr. Li, the children of China’s 200 million migrant
laborers, vocational schools offer the promise of better-paying, more
stable work than their parents had.

Courses cover a wide range of subjects, often depending on the needs of
the region. In Liaoning Province, an industrial area in the north,
automobile repair and construction are popular. In cities, students opt
for tourism and customer service; the niche skill of air-conditioning
installation and upkeep is in particular demand.

While China has long had state-run vocational schools, critics say that
they are bogged down by bureaucracy and overwhelmed by the huge number of
youths who need training.

Private enterprises like BN Vocational School can fill that gap, but only
with the outside funding needed to be able to train poor students for
free. Founded in 2005, it is supported by charities (the China Youth
Development Foundation and Ford Foundation), corporations (Citigroup,
Wal-Mart, Caterpillar and Bank of America) and both the Chinese and
foreign governments. It also runs schools in seven other Chinese cities.

While newly minted university graduates face a tight job market, skilled
vocational school graduates are in high demand, with employment rates
above 95 percent between 2007 and 2011, according to a 2013 report by the
Chinese Society of Vocational and Technical Education.

China’s labor force is huge, with more than 75 percent of the country’s
population between the ages of 20 and 49, but the average worker’s
education level is relatively low. According to the Ministry of Human
Resources and Social Security, only half of China’s 140 million urban
employees can be classified as “skilled.”

About one-third of domestically produced products cannot pass
quality-control tests because workers are not qualified enough to operate
the machinery, resulting in a loss of 200 billion renminbi a year,
according to a 2012 report by Yan Hao, a recently retired senior research
fellow at the National Development and Reform Commission.

Most of the Chinese population is at the prime of their working lives; but
this so-called “demographic dividend” is set to end, according to
economists. China’s labor force is predicted to peak at 751 million in
2015 — and age and decline from there. There will not be as many young
workers to replace those retiring out of the market.

“The government will need to get greater productivity gains out of a
smaller work force to continue to grow the economy,” according to Xiaoyan
Liang, a senior education specialist at the World Bank. As China
transitions to a more skill-based economy, investing in technical and
vocational education training can help bridge this gap.

One of the biggest challenges to vocational education is the traditional
Chinese bias in favor of a university degree, Dr. Yan said.

“Parents would prefer to send their children to university because there
is higher social status associated with attending college,” Dr. Yan said.
“But because so many college graduates end up at a job that is no
different in wage level from the vocational school grads, this attitude is
gradually changing.”

“There is a lot of pressure on the government to help new graduates find
jobs, and so they are trying to persuade young people, particularly those
who failed the college entry examination or cannot afford college tuition
fees, to attend vocational school and graduate with a guaranteed job,” Dr.
Yan added.

According to Dr. Yan, the government began overhauling curriculums to
provide targeted employment-oriented training to meet local market
demands. But the reality is that many state-run vocational schools do not
work closely enough with local industry, generating mismatches in the
labor market.

"In the 1980s, vocational schools were funded and organized by various
industries, so supply matched demand in the marketplace,” said Megan Zeng,
principal at the BN Vocational School campus in Beijing, speaking of
state-run schools. Under the old model, industries “knew what they wanted,
knew what was needed in the marketplace” and trained students accordingly.

“Now, however, schools are under the control of the regional education
agency, so they are less specialized,” she said, adding that those working
in industry were not usually involved in designing curriculums.

Many schools are also not addressing the critical issue of teacher
qualification. While instructors are required to have a bachelor’s degree,
many do not have industry experience — something the government is working
to change.

Private schools are also addressing these challenges. At the BN Vocational
School, “there is a full-time team on each of our eight campuses that
works with employers to ensure that the skills our students learn — and
the majors we offer — are in high demand in the local market,” said Xu
Sheng, the sponsorship manager at the Beijing campus.

“B.N.V.S. is more flexible because of its small size,” Ms. Zeng said.
“State-run schools naturally have more bureaucracy, so it will take time
to change the curriculum to adapt to current market conditions.”

“The Chinese government is very supportive and aware of the need for
programs that are relevant so students will have the right skills for
China’s economy,” Ms. Liang of the World Bank said.

The government is implementing numerous measures to adapt vocational
training, which has changed with the times as services replace
manufacturing as the country’s engine of growth.

A decade ago, Mr. Li would not have been able to major in hotel
management; but today, it is an offering at more schools, along with
tourism, Web production and graphic design.

The BN Vocational School’s founder, Yao Li, hopes that its updated
curriculum will help students who might otherwise have been left out of
China’s economic miracle feel “hopeful about their lives and futures.”