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This book examines the Chinese vocational education system an arena of growing significance in China s economic transformation. Over the past few decades, the central government has moved to decentralize a traditionally school-based skill development system, embracing a more market-oriented model that incorporates substantial employer involvement. This shift has produced a highly decentralized system centered on targeted training partnerships between schools and firms. These collaborations, further institutionalized by a series of reforms associated with the Made in China 2025 initiative, have helped alleviate skilled labor shortages and sustain the competitiveness of China s industrial sector globally. Yet, this book argues that neither a centralized, school-led model nor a decentralized, employer-driven approach has established the ideal institutional foundations necessary for sustainable workforce upskilling. This provocative study explores the future of skills development in China and identifies critical reforms needed to build a labor force capable of sustaining the country s economic trajectory in the decades ahead.
List of contents
Chapter 1: National Skill Formation Systems Theory and International Experience.- Chapter 2: Decentralization Withdrawal of the State and Varieties of Vocational.- Chapter 3: Collaboration How Firms Facilitate the Transformation of Vocational.- Chapter 4: Institutionalization Outcomes and Challenges of the Apprenticeship.- Chapter 5: Dilemma The Chinese Reform in a Comparative Institutional Perspective.
About the author
Hao Zhang is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Labor Relations at the School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, where he has been a faculty member since 2017. He holds a PhD in International and Comparative Labor from Cornell University’s ILR School. His research focuses on labor relations and collective bargaining, work and employment in the digital economy, and skill development, with a particular emphasis on China. His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
,
Journal of Industrial Relations
,
The China Quarterly
,
Management and Organization Review
, and
International Labour Review
. He is co-author of Beyond the Iron Rice Bowl: Regimes of Production and Industrial Relations in China (Campus Verlag) and editor of China’s Labor Relations Development Report 2025 (in Chinese, China Labor and Social Security Publishing House). His research has informed policy initiatives in China, including those of the State Council, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education, and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
Summary
This book examines the Chinese vocational education system—an arena of growing significance in China’s economic transformation. Over the past few decades, the central government has moved to decentralize a traditionally school-based skill development system, embracing a more market-oriented model that incorporates substantial employer involvement. This shift has produced a highly decentralized system centered on targeted training partnerships between schools and firms. These collaborations, further institutionalized by a series of reforms associated with the
Made in China 2025
initiative, have helped alleviate skilled labor shortages and sustain the competitiveness of China’s industrial sector globally. Yet, this book argues that neither a centralized, school-led model nor a decentralized, employer-driven approach has established the ideal institutional foundations necessary for sustainable workforce upskilling. This provocative study explores the future of skills development in China and identifies critical reforms needed to build a labor force capable of sustaining the country’s economic trajectory in the decades ahead.
