More than 500 Chinese professional training schools and 1,400 companies and enterprises will join hands to cultivate grey-collar and blue-collar workers, which are much needed with the country's rapid economic growth.

This is the first step of a national program on cultivating talented people with professional skills, jointly initiated by the Ministry of Education and other five governmental administrations, said Wu Qidi, vice minister of education, Monday.

The program will first cover four priority areas including numerical control technology, computer and software, vehicle maintenance and the nursing profession. Grey-collar workers refer to those who combine book knowledge with practical technical skills, while blue-collar workers are those who do primarily hands-on work.

An investigation shows China now demands nearly 300,000 more vehicle maintenance professionals every year. And in terms of medical service, the proportion of Chinese doctors and nurses is 1:0.61, compared with the world average of 1:2.7. If China wants to change this proportion into 1:1 by 2015, it should at lease cultivate 150,000 nurses annually.

Under the program, Wu said, one million professionals will be trained in the concerned fields from this year to 2007, with short-term training offered to three million people.

Companies and enterprises participating in the program can not only employ excellent graduates from the cooperative schools, but also have their employees enjoy further training. Laid-off workers and farmers working in cities will also have the opportunity to take skill training.

Microsoft Company has started to participate in the preparation work for the program since 2002, and has so far designed 19 study programs and teaching materials in the field of information technology. A high-ranking official with Microsoft said the program is of strategic importance to maintaining the rapid growth of the national economy, as the global demand for training and education service in the IT industry is increasing year by year.

Statistics show that in 2003, the market share of IT-related training and education service was valued at 18.8 billion US dollars, which is expected to reach 23.7 billion US dollars by 2007.

Sources with the Chinese Ministry of Education said China has started to construct 35 demonstration vocational schools for training in software design skills.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)