Vocational School–Enterprise Cooperation in China: A Review of Policy Reforms, 1978-2022

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk

Review of policy reforms guiding school–enterprise cooperation in China’s vocational education (1978–2022) using textual analysis of government policy documents. The review identifies four developmental stages—spontaneous development, central position establishment, systematic design, and institutional construction—and evaluates both achievements and persistent issues that still require improvement. The study covers over 40 years of evolution and offers references for understanding Chinese vocational education.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose and Methods

Findings and Stages

Originality/Value

Introduction

Concepts Used in Policy

Stage 1 (1978–1999): Spontaneous Development

Vocational School–Enterprise Cooperation in China: A Review of Policy Reforms, 1978–2022 Yingwen Zhou (周英文) Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University Guoqing Xu (徐国庆) East China Normal University ECNU Review of Education 2023, Vol. 6(3) 433–450 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/20965311231167895](DOI: 10.1177/20965311231167895)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/20965311231167895)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: This study conducted a review of policy reforms of school–enterprise cooperation in China’s vocational education and its characteristics at different stages. Design/Approach/Methods: This study systematically reviewed vocational educational policies on school–enterprise cooperation adopted by the Chinese government since 1978 using textual analysis. Findings: The development of school–enterprise cooperation in China’s vocational education can be divided into four stages: spontaneous development (Stage 1), central position establishment (Stage 2), systematic design (Stage 3), and institutional construction (Stage 4). After years of practice and exploration, China’s school–enterprise cooperation has made impressive achievements, but also has several problems that require further improvement. Originality/Value: This study examined over 40 years of history of the development of vocational school–enterprise cooperation in China, providing a useful reference for learning and understanding Chinese vocational education. Corresponding author: Guoqing Xu, Institution of Vocational and Adult Education, East China Normal University, 3663 North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062, China. Email: [gqxu@ses.ecnu.edu.cn](gqxu@ses.ecnu.edu.cn) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as speciﬁed on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). Keywords China, policy reform, practice situation, school–enterprise cooperation, vocational education Date received: 16 October 2020; revised: 26 June 2022; accepted: 24 January 2023 In most countries, vocational education and training (VET) systems are structured according to labor market demand (Özer & Suna, 2020), which is one of the greatest challenges in this area (Rözer & van de Werfhorst, 2020) . The development of vocational schools and colleges depends on cooperation with enterprises because of the direct impact of the labor market on vocational education. Cooperation bridges the relationship between vocational schools and the industrial world (Widodo et al., 2020), plays an essential role in providing competencies mostly needed by the workforce (Unsudah & Irianti, 2020), and promotes employer involvement in vocational education (Bolli et al., 2018) . According to Bolli et al. (2018), compared to other countries with dual VET, Asian countries such as China, Japan, Singapore, and Korea score lowest in the education–employment linkage. In China, vocational education development is primarily policy-driven (Fan, 2020) . The Chinese government has issued dozens of policy documents to improve the school–enterprise cooperation in vocational education. Under these policy incentives, the cooperation has made gradual, but continuous progress. Since the reform and opening-up in 1978, policies concerning vocational school– enterprise cooperation have experienced roughly four stages: spontaneous development, central position establishment, systematic design, and in

FAQs

What is the purpose of the study on school–enterprise cooperation in China’s vocational education?

The study reviews policy reforms related to school–enterprise cooperation in China’s vocational education and summarizes how these reforms evolve across different stages.

What methods are used in the research?

The study uses textual analysis to systematically review vocational education policies adopted by the Chinese government since 1978.

How many stages does the development of school–enterprise cooperation in vocational education divide into, and what are they?

It is divided into four stages: spontaneous development (Stage 1), central position establishment (Stage 2), systematic design (Stage 3), and institutional construction (Stage 4).

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk