Attitude shift still needed to get more young people into vocational education

Students learn about food processing technologies at a vocational school in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in April. [Photo by Ding Genhou for China Daily]

Winning gold in the computer numerical control (CNC) milling event at the 47th WorldSkills competition, held in Lyon, France, in September, is etched into the memory of 23-year-old Long Weijie, whose victory gave China its fifth consecutive gold in the event over the past decade.

Widely applied in daily life, CNC milling is used to shape metal and other solid materials to create products such as watches or even ship propellers.

"The competition imposes extremely strict requirements on precision and accuracy, with a permissible error range of just 0.02 of a millimeter — about a quarter of the diameter of a human hair," Long said. Working as a teacher at Guangdong Machinery Technician College Guangzhou, Long passes on his skills to domestic companies, helping them to improve and update their milling techniques.

Young Chinese handy men and women — usually aged under 25 — have shown the world their impressive skills and talent at WorldSkills, an initiative that rose out of the ruins of World War II in Europe when a huge skills shortage threatened economic depression.

At the 47th WorldSkills competition in Lyon last year, China won 36 golds, nine silvers and four bronzes, topping the medal table.

The WorldSkills competition is held every two years. The Chinese mainland joined the organization in 2010 and has since sent seven delegations to compete.

Long and his peers are examples of young people in China who have dedicated themselves to honing their skills not just to take victory in competitions, but to pursue better career development and to pass down their craftsmanship to future generations.