A lawmaker from Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has stressed the importance of training skilled workers in enterprises so that they will become popular.
Yan Shuzhong, a deputy to the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, said that enterprises usually pay great attention to professionals with a high educational level, to the neglect of technicians and skilled workers.
Yan, also chairman of the Heilongjiang Provincial Heihua Group Company, said, “Technicians and skilled workers account for 80 percent of enterprises’ work force. In the United States, a welder earns roughly as much as a state governor does. In Shanghai, Shenzhen and other big cities, it is fairly easy to hire post-graduates, whereas it is hard to hire a technician.”
Some other deputies shared Yan's view. They noted that the role of a technician and a skilled worker is absolutely no less great than that of a senior engineer.
Yan Shuzhong gave an example. Last year his company imported a piece of sophisticated equipment and invited some academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to help install and test the equipment. One month later, the equipment went into normal operation, with two key technical problems solved by skilled workers.
Many enterprises have come to realize the need to train technicians and skilled workers. “My company has already trained 400 senior technicians,” he said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2002)
