Made in China: challenge and innovation in China's vocational and technical education system

Substantial challenges confront Chinese policy makers as they consider how to rebuild their vocational education and training (VET) system to support economic transformation. This report finds that despite world-leading academic performance in Shanghai schools, educational opportunities and outcomes across the country remain highly uneven. With the largest population in the world, and now the world's second largest economy, China will need a more skilled and productive labor force to break free from its current reliance on a low-cost, low-skill manufacturing for export economic model, according to the researchers. This report is the second in a four-part international comparative study of vocational and technical education systems aimed at informing the efforts underway in many countries to redesign education and skill-formation systems for the 21st century.

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