"Gray collar", once a word often used to refer to certain trades and professions by ordinary Chinese, will gradually give way to "silver collar" with the further development of senior professional training.

Ge Daokai, a senior official with the Chinese Ministry of Education, made this remark at a press conference in Beijing Tuesday, citing this as the goal of the reform of the whole Chinese educational system.

In recent years, Ge said, higher professional training in the country has shown an unprecedented development, with its enlarged size. By the end of 2003, 908 senior professional training schools were established, which, in addition with another 612 colleges to offer senior professional training courses, boasted a total of 4.79 million on-campus students.

In the meantime, graduates from these schools rose by 350,000 over 2002, with their employment rate up five percentage points.

Yu Zhongwen, president of the Shenzhen Professional Training College, said his college, since its founding in 1993, has been turned into a national-level training center with an enrollment of 12,305 students working on 68 specialties as against 59 students involved in only two specialties at the beginning.

The school has formed 57 management committees which took charge of respective specialties, and kept an close eye on the employment trend by closely contacting and consulting 534 experts and 512 local employers, he noted.

In past three years, the school's employment rate reached 96.23 percent, as students of such specialties as port administration were hired by Hong Kong firms upon their graduation. Likewise, graduating students from Henan Higher Senior Machines Professional School have also been welcomed by large multinationals for their qualification and practical knowledge.

Despite gratifying progress scored in the professional training sector, Ge, the education ministry official, also pinpointed problems and difficulties, which include, among others, inadequate investment in school construction and insufficient teaching facilities, as well as backward and outmoded teaching methods.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2004)