Millions of skilled workers fostered by city

Tianjin building up its workforce with subsidized training in bid to achieve high-quality development

Thanks to its sustained efforts, the municipality of Tianjin in northern China has built a talent pool of 2.73 million technicians, of whom 30 percent are highly skilled workers.

During the past few years, the coastal city has introduced a slew of policies on skilled workers, involving training, evaluation and awards.

The city now has a national-level public training center, the Tianjin Public Vocational Training Center of China, 18 national-level training bases for highly skilled workers and 45 city-level training bases.

The Tianjin Public Vocational Training Center of China, covering an area of 8 hectares, offers practical training in five sectors: modern manufacturing, modern control, modern logistics, modern electronic manufacturing and information technology.

The center has the capacity to receive 80,000 people a year, providing them with services such as training, evaluation and competition, staff members said.

By the end of 2020, Tianjin was home to 22 schools and colleges for vocational education, with more than 20,000 students.

These schools focus on emerging industries and cutting-edge technologies, and design their curricula accordingly, local officials said.

Tianjin Vocational College of Mechanics and Electricity, for example, provides courses in industrial robots and three-dimensional manufacturing.

Meanwhile, they work together with industry giants in teaching, practical training, and technological research and development, the officials added.

According to Tianjin's development plan for vocational education (2021-25), the city will merge its technical schools to improve their quality and foster more highly skilled workers.

According to the plan, the number of technical schools will be reduced to 15 by 2025, while the student population will rise to 30,000.

Additionally, local enterprises are encouraged to set up their own training centers.

Eighteen companies with advanced facilities and technologies have been recognized by the city authorities as public training centers, meaning they are not only accessible to employees but the general public.

Of them, China Construction Steel-Structure Tianjin has a 1,500-square-meter training center which mainly provides handson courses for welding robot operators and assembly fitters.

The company has also established partnerships with three technical schools including Tianjin Labour Economics School and the Hebei Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Technology in Xingtai, Hebei province.

In 2020, the training center was certified as a national training base for highly skilled workers.

Based on the training platforms, Tianjin has launched a variety of vocational training programs.

For professions that are short of workers, local authorities subsidize tuition according to different groups of people and the degree of scarcity. For example, urban residents that register as unemployed can obtain subsidies equivalent to at least 60 percent of the training fees.

So far, the subsidies cover 225 professions in about 20 industries. A total of 1.1 million people have received subsidized vocational training during the past five years, according to the local government.

Tianjin has also moved ahead with reforms in the evaluation of technicians, from unified assessments by governments to independent evaluations by employers.

Currently, there are 84 companies in the city that have set up their own evaluation systems for vocational skills.

To increase incentives for skilled workers, the Haihe Craftsman award was created in 2019, which is the highest city-level honor for technicians.

Every year, 10 people are selected for the honorary title and each gets a prize of 200,000 yuan ($27,450).

Besides, the city recognizes 100 workers as technical experts biennially, giving each a 20,000 yuan reward.

The second week of May is "Tianjin Skill Week" during which activities take place across the city to share technicians' success stories and carry forward the spirit of craftsmanship.

In addition, Tianjin hosts an array of vocational competitions every year in a bid to grow its highly skilled workforce and boost local manufacturing industries.

The Haihe Craftsman skills competition, which was launched in 2020, has involved 300 enterprises, 62 schools and colleges, and nearly 60,000 contestants during the past three years, according to official data.

From Saturday to Tuesday, the second Vocational Skills Competition of China is being held in the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Tianjin).

This year's competition features 109 items, with more than 4,000 participants from across the country.

During the first session of the event in 2020, Tianjin collected two gold medals, one bronze medal, and 23 awards.