Made in China urgently needs to get out of the “missing skilled worker” cycle

In recent years, the number of college graduates across the country has repeatedly hit record highs. Every year when graduation is approaching, there will be difficulties in evaluating employment from all walks of life, and the “most difficult employment season in history” has been repeatedly broken. In 2013, the number of college graduates nationwide was 6.99 million, and in 2014 it increased to 7.27 million, an increase of 280,000 over the previous year; in 2015, the number of college graduates was 7.49 million, an increase of 220,000 over the previous year. On May 20 this year, a national video conference on the employment and entrepreneurship of college graduates was held. According to the news from the conference, the number of college graduates this year reached a record high of 7.56 million. In addition, the downward pressure on the economy this year is still relatively high. It is no exaggeration to call it “the hardest employment season”.

However, with the difficulty of obtaining employment for college students, there is a shortage of skilled workers across the country. “The surplus of college students” and the “severe shortage of skilled workers” can be described as two heavens of ice and fire, and there is a huge contrast between the two. In many provinces, the most frustrating thing business owners struggle with is the difficulty of recruiting workers, and it’s even more difficult to recruit skilled workers. Even in some areas along the southeast coast, a migrant worker went home and brought back a worker, rewarding 500-1000 yuan.

The revitalization and development of China’s manufacturing industry requires a large number of skilled workers. The structure of the skilled worker team that matches the modern industrial structure should be composed of intermediate and senior skilled workers, while the current structure of our skilled worker team is the opposite. The reasonable proportions of the skilled workers in developed countries provided by the International Labor Organization are 35%, 50%, and 15% respectively. The proportion of skilled workers in developed countries is 20%-40%, while in our country it is less than 4%, and there is a shortage of tens of millions of people.

What needs to be pointed out is that “skilled workers shortage” is a common phenomenon. From south to north, from east to west, people are calling for lack of skilled workers. Even for ordinary skill positions, there is a big gap in many regions. In Guangdong Province, there were only a few thousand skilled workers such as electricians, fitters, lathes, welding, and refrigeration workers in the late 1970s. Today, the gap has reached four to five million, among which the gap of CNC technicians exceeds 10 Ten thousand people. On average, each senior technician in Shanghai has 7.33 positions to choose from. The monthly salary of ordinary technicians is 3,000-6,000 yuan, and the monthly salary of senior technicians is 10,000 to 20,000 yuan. In the future, the average annual demand for senior skilled workers in Shanghai will be about 20,000, most of which will be concentrated in industries with high value-added production such as process design, mechanical processing, electrical equipment, and optical and mechanical integration.

Liaoning is well-known throughout the country for its equipment manufacturing industry. Well-known national labor models such as Meng Tai, Wang Chonglun, Zhang Chengzhe, and Wei Fengying have emerged, which are fertile ground for the growth of vocational talents. But what is contradictory is the lack of technical personnel in the equipment manufacturing industry in the large provinces of the equipment manufacturing industry. The lack of skilled workers has led to the lack of innovation and R&D capabilities in the current manufacturing industry in Liaoning, as well as low labor efficiency and management levels, which restricts the upgrading and transformation of the equipment manufacturing industry. The current serious shortage of middle and senior skilled workers has become a bottleneck in the development of Liaoning’s manufacturing industry.

Why is there such a shortage of skilled workers? I think the unbalanced structure of technical education is the underlying reason.

The first is that vocational and technical education is seriously lagging behind. During the two sessions in 2016, Zhao Yu, deputy to the National People’s Congress and chief technician of Beijing Benz, submitted two proposals, namely “Recommendations on Emphasizing Vocational Education and Training of Skilled Talents” and “Recommendations on Expanding Vocational Skills Training and Implementing Skilled Employment Projects” . Zhao Yu is currently the chief technician of automobile assembly and adjustment of Beijing Benz Automobile Co., Ltd., and is a technical backbone who really comes from the front line of production. In the previous three years, he has successively submitted “Recommendations on Learning from the School-Enterprise Cooperation Model in Developed Countries to Train High-Quality Skilled Talents”, “Recommendations on Improving Vocational Education and Strengthening the Training of Skilled Talents” and “Related Issues on the Development of Vocational Education” “Recommendations”, aroused the attention and discussion of all parties. Zhao Yu said: “I have always been working in the front line of modern manufacturing. Not only did I have the opportunity to study and study in Germany, but I also went to Canada with a delegation from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security to inspect the development of vocational education in Canada. The lag in the development of vocational education has led to the status quo of skilled talents, which has restricted our country’s pace of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.”

The second is the society’s prejudice against vocational and technical education. Paying attention to general education and ignoring vocational education are basically the universal values ​​of the whole society. Most parents of students choose to go to high school when their child graduates from junior high school. When students graduate from university or college, they are unwilling to work in factories even if they are unemployed. Public opinion is almost one-sided to “light industry”, ignoring proper publicity on the status and role of skilled workers, one-sided pursuit of high education, and reluctance to be workers, resulting in a shortage of students in technical schools. Because of the social status and income status of workers, young people are impatient, unwilling to be workers, and unwilling to take the initiative to learn skills.

Furthermore, from the perspective of social education, the development of general education, vocational education, and adult education is not coordinated. The development of secondary vocational education is much slower than that of ordinary high schools. The proportion of vocational education and general education is imbalanced, and the gap is too large. In terms of professional setting, most vocational schools are mainly for the social service industry, such as secretarial, accounting, tourism, business, foreign languages, etc. There are very few vocational schools specializing in the training of first-line technicians for the manufacturing industry. Faced with the strong demand for skilled workers, there is a serious shortage of students in technical schools. In society, there is also a lack of training institutions to improve skills, and there are few opportunities and channels for workers to further study, and it is difficult to think about their skills.

In addition, companies also lack incentive mechanisms. Some companies have not conducted job title evaluations for many years, wages are not linked to skill levels, and employees’ contributions are not linked to personal income, resulting in a low skill learning atmosphere and an unstable team of technical workers in the company. This is also an important reason for the lack of skilled workers.

Of course, it is fundamentally a tilt of the talent outlook. On the one hand, there is a narrow talent view of only academic qualifications and only professional titles. The concept of emphasizing diplomas and neglecting skills is widespread. If a student holds a graduation certificate from a vocational school, he can find a job in an enterprise, but he must enter a state-owned enterprise or a public institution. , It’s impossible to test civil servants. The widespread “discrimination on academic qualifications” and “discrimination on diplomas” in the society hinder the full development and utilization of human resources. On the other hand, the standards for talent identification are solidified and rigid. For a long time, high-level skilled workers and skilled workers have not been regarded as talents, or as marginalized talents.

How to get out of the strange circle of “the lack of skilled workers”? The attempt of the skill master studio (station) in Liaoning Province is worth learning. In order to cultivate more high-skilled talents who can meet the requirements of industrial transformation and upgrading, Liaoning Province has launched a skill master studio (station), and strives to form a skill transfer and promotion network covering key industries and characteristic industries in the province by 2020. In order to support the workstations, the government provides a one-time financial support of 100,000 yuan for each provincial skilled master workstation, and a supporting fund of 100,000 yuan for each approved national skilled master studio for the purchase of training supplies, technical exchanges and promotion Expenses etc. Driven by the policy, Xu Qiang of Shenyang Blower Group, Cui Ligang of Liaoning Toyota Jinbei Technician College, Zhong Shuanghong of Wafangdian Bearing Group Co., Ltd., etc. have created masters of skills in equipment manufacturing, machining, information technology and other industries. studio. At present, Liaoning has established 20 national-level skill master studios and 60 provincial-level skill master workstations. The studio has recruited a large number of technical “bull” people in various fields, including winners of the China Skills Award, national technical experts, and senior technicians who enjoy special allowances from the State Council and special allowances from the provincial government. They are engaged in enterprise production, technological research, invention and innovation. , The transformation of scientific and technological achievements, the transfer of art and other aspects to play their strengths.

At the same time, speed up the reform of technical schools, further establish the idea of ​​training for employment, and guide technical schools to face the labor market and undertake re-employment training tasks. Strengthen “school-enterprise cooperation” and cultivate new vocational education models. Schools and enterprises sign training agreements, adopt the “order training” method, customize “blue collar” technicians in specialized fields for enterprises, and cultivate more practical talents.

More importantly, the whole society must change the concept of talents, design talent training and evaluation strategies from the top level, and build a modern vocational education system, so that vocational education students can have a single skill, have prospects for employment, and have a future for further studies; value and respect technical skills. For workers, establish a complete system from entering school to employment, from salary guarantee to rights protection, so that technically skilled workers also have reliable social security and stable growth space; change the culture of selecting and employing people only by diploma schools, and it’s not true. Only academic qualifications only ability, so that vocational education students have more choices. The environment has changed and the concept has changed, so that vocational education can truly usher in the spring. It is necessary to break the shackles and barriers for workers to become famous and family, to give those skilled workers who have made outstanding contributions their due social status, so that skilled workers can truly become the “sweet and delicious” of the enterprise, and to inspire the sense of pride, honor and responsibility of front-line employees. Made in China contributes to the world.