Technical Vocational Education and Training in Xinjiang
SABER- Workforce Development
Diagnostic Report | Xinjiang, China, 2013
Strategy Oversight Delivery
Liping Xiao and Jin Song
Human Development Unit Sector
East Asia and Pacific Region
The World Bank
Technical Vocational Education and Training in Xinjiang
Table of Contents
I.Introduction
II.Xinjiang Context
1.Economic Trends
2.Workforce Status
(1)Supply of Workforce
(2) Demand for Workforce
3.Challenges on Workforce Development
4.Status of TVET System
(1) TVET System
(2) Mismatch between TVET Supply and Demand
III.Benchmarking Result
IV.Result Analysis and Policy Recommendations
1.Result Analysis
2.Policy Recommendations
Annex 1. Diagnostic Tool and Analytical Framework
Annex 2 SABER-WfD Results of Xinjiang TVET System
Technical Vocational Education and Training in Xinjiang
- Introduction
Background and Objective
The Department of Education of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), together with the Xinjiang Department of Finance and the Ministry of Finance,requested support from the World Bank (WB) toassess the status of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector in the Province in December 2011. A WB team visited Xinjiang on February 2012 and an agreement was reached to use a new diagnostic tool, known as SABER-WfD and developed by the WB, as the principalanalytical tool to do the assessment. This report documents progress, analyzes strengths and weaknesses of the Xinjiang TVET system, and proposes recommendations that can be used to enrich policy dialogue and open opportunities for future cooperationbetween Xinjiang and the World Bank.
Diagnostic Tool and Methodology
The diagnostic tool is a product of the World Bank’s initiative on Systems Approachfor Better Education Results (SABER), which focuses on several policy domains, including workforce development (WfD)(WfD is equivalent to TVET). SABER-WfDserves to assess how well a given country’s policies and institutions are performing in light of global best practices. It focuses on three dimensions,including strategic framework, system oversight and service delivery. Each dimension is further divided into three policy goals of governance, finance and information,as well as nine more detailed policy actions. The analytical framework is described in Annex 1.(Readers unfamiliar with the SABER-WfD tool are strongly urged to consult Annex 1 in order to be better prepared to fully understand the following report and analyses).
The World Bank team discussed and agreed with the Foreign Capital Project Management Office of the Xinjiang Education Department, the main counterpart for this study,on the selection criteria for the principal investigator (PI) responsible for data collection and the desk review of available documentation and interviews with key informants, including officials from related departments and representatives of training institutes and enterprises.Then the local PI was selected to work on data collection under the Bank team’s guidance. The scoring and reporting was produced by the Bank teams[1].
Structure of the Report
This report is composed of three sections. The first section provides a brief overview and analysis of the Xinjiang setting, including economic trends, status of the workforceand TVET system. This is followed by a summary of the SABER-WfD results including 3 dimensions, 9 policy goals and 27 policy actions. Lastly, a brief policy analysis along with recommendations reflect upon the results of the SABER-WfD study by addressing key challenges and weaknesses of the Xinjiang TVET system in the context of Xinjiang’s Medium to Long-Term Education and TalentDevelopment Plans.
- Xinjiang Context
- Economic Trends
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has vast areas with sparse population but withabundant natural resources. It is an important province in China’s Northwest region. In the past 10 years, Xinjiang hasachieved rapid economic development. In the year 2010, Xinjiang’s GDP reached 543.75 billion Yuan, and per capita GDP reached 25,034 Yuan, yet still behind the national average.First, Xinjiang’s economic development scale makes up only 1.36% of the national GDP, and its per capita GDP is about 5,000 Yuan below the national average[2]. Second, economic development isslower than the national average during the same period of time. During the period 2001-2010, the average per capitaGDP growth rate in Xinjiang was only 8.6%, whereas the national average was 9.8%.This economic feature is related to the existing sectorstructure and industrialdistribution in Xinjiang, and it is also related to the current workforcestatus in Xinjiang.
Figure 1 GDP Per Capita Growth Rate (% per annum)[3]
Source: Chinese Statistical Yearbook 2002 to 2011.
Compared with the national sectorstructure, the ratio of the primary sector in Xinjiang GDP is greater than that of the national average, while the ratio of the secondarysector is almost the same as the national average[4], and the share of the tertiary sector is comparatively smaller[5].Production ofcash crops makes up61% of the total production of major agro products in Xinjiang. The share of agriculture has remained at all times at 20%of Xinjiang’s total GDP, which is far abovethe national average of 10%[6].The proportionof the secondarysectorin Xinjiang’s GDP has been growing every year, from 42.4% in 2001 to 47.7% in 2012, which is at the same level of growth as the national average. Compared with the primary and secondarysectors, the tertiary sectordevelopment in Xinjiang is lagging behind the national average. Itdecreased from 38.2% of GDP in 2001 to 32.5% in 2012, which was 10.6 percentage points lower than that of the national average. This is insharp contrast with the national trend of steady growth of the tertiarysector during the same period.
Figure 2 Composition of GDP by Sectors(%), 2010
Source: China’s Statistical Yearbook, 2011.
The industrydistribution of the tertiary sector has shown that the comparatively developed industries include construction, public administration and social organizations, wholesale and retail, finance, traffic and transportation, storage and post, education, and real estates, etc. By adding them up together, their GDP constitutes 32.5% of the total GDP in Xinjiang. Most of these industries are labor and capital intensive, rather than technology intensive industries.
Figure 3GDP by Industries in Xinjiang, 2010 (billion Yuan)
Source:Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook, 2011.
- Workforce Status
(1)Supply of Workforce[7]
Xinjiang’s growth in its workforce population is fasterthan the national average, ageing is slower than the national average, and decreasing school-age population is slower than the national average.Therefore Xinjiang has a comparative advantage in terms of the quantity of its workforce.In 2010 population in Xinjiang reached 21.85 million, among which, 59.9% were ethnic minorities.As a result ofthe preferential flexible family planning policy offered to ethnic minorities[8], population growth in Xinjiang has always been at the top for the whole country. In 2010, the natural population growth rate in Xinjiang reached 10.56‰, far higher than the national average of 4.79‰. Meanwhile, the workforce population increased steadily, from 13.85 million in 2002 to 15.93 million in 2010, averaging 1.8% in annual growth, whereas the national population growth during the same period of time was only 1.3%. The population of 0-14 year oldsdecreased from 4.97 million in 2002 to 4.53 million in 2010, averaging annual reduction of 1.1%, whereas the national average reduction during the same period was 3.2%. In this sense, Xinjiang is expected to enjoy a longerperiod of demographic dividend. Consequently Xinjiang faces greater pressure in providing better public education services.
Figure 4Age Group ScalePattern in Xinjiang (million),Xinjiang, 2002-2010
Data source: China Statistical Yearbook 2003-2011
The quality ofworkforce in Xinjiang has improved graduallyin recent years, but the average educational attainment remains lower than the national average.In 2009, the average educational attainment of the Xinjiang workforcewas 9 years of schooling, whereas the national average was 9.5 years. The newentrant labor received on average 10 years of education, whereas that of the national average was 12.4 years; about 30% of the newentrant labor received education atthe senior secondarylevel and above, which was far behind the national average of 67%. The Xinjiang government aims at reducing these gaps by 2020, especially for the group with senior secondary education and above, according to the Xinjiang Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (see Table 1). Hence, from now on, Xinjiang’s general education and TVET in particular have todevelop at a faster and better pace than in other provinces. Otherwise the province would not achieve its objectives by 2020.
Table 1 Major Goals of Education Development during2010-2020
Data sources: Outline of National Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020) ; Outline of Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2010-2020).
(2) Demand for Workforce
The tertiary sector has provided more new jobs in Xinjiang in the past ten years. The total employed population in Xinjiang increased from 6.85 million in 2001 to 8.95 million in 2010, representinga 30.5% increase. The share of workers in primary sector jobsdecreased from 56.6% to 49.0%, while employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors wentup from 13.5% to 14.8% andfrom 29.9% to 36.2% respectively.
Figure 5Xinjiang Employment Scale and Structureby Strata of Industry
Data sources: Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook, 2001-2011.
In terms of the occupational structure of the workforce, the proportion of public service is up and traditional service is down; the proportion of managers and technicians in some key sectors like coal industry will be increased. In the past five years in the tertiary sector, services for household, health, social security and welfare increased rapidly with average annual increase of over 3%. Meanwhile, occupations oftraditional services,likehotel and catering, as well as wholesale and retail industries,wereshrinking. Looking forward to the next five years, the coal industry will provide 300,000 new posts by 2015, most of which will be technicians and managers[9].
Table 2Changes of Employment Scale by Sectors in Tertiary Industry- Xinjiang,2006-2010[10]
Sectors With Most Rapid Growth of Employment / Annual Growth Rate (%) / Sectors With Most Rapid Shrinking of Employment / Annual Shrinking Rate (%)Services to Households and Other Services[11] / 14.36 / Hotels and Catering Services / -3.58
Health, Social Security and Social Welfare / 5.02 / Wholesale and Retail Trades / -3.32
Financial Intermediation / 4.29 / Information Transmission, Computer Services and Software / -3.19
Leasing and Business Services / 3.72 / Traffic, Transport, Storage and Post / -0.95
Management of Water Conservancy, Environment / 3.64 / Real Estate / -0.32
Data sources: Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook, 2007-2011
- Challenges on Workforce Development
The achievement of Xinjiang strategic objectives needsleapfrog development，especiallyleapfrog development of education.Xinjiang is a major province rich in land, energy and mining resources, and it also has comparative advantage in the quantity of its workforce.However, it faces some constraints regarding its economic development, industrial structure and the quality of its workforce.In the past ten years,Xinjiang’s economy grew rapidly. However, the current Xinjiang GDP per capita is still below the national average by a gap of 5,000 Yuan.Xinjiang’s 12th Five Year Development Plan has set the development goalof “catching up with the national average level in terms of per capita regional total production value, and reaching the Western region’s average level in terms of urban and rural residents’ incomeand public services”.Leapfrogdevelopmentwill be needed to achieve this target. Channeling of industrial sectors will need to be adjusted through new industrialization, agricultural modernization and new urbanization. Agriculture needs to transfer surplus labor through the use of innovative technology, secondary industry needs to form technological-intensive pillar sectors, and tertiary industry needs to turn to modern service sectors. The fundamental step to achieve these transformations is to produce a high quality workforce. Only through providinghighly skilled workers can the comparative advantage of the quantity of workforce be brought into play and natural resources be fully utilized. This is the answer to ultimately achieving Xinjiang’s leapfrog development.
The mismatch between labor supply and demand for higher workforce skills provisionhas constrained Xinjiang’s economic development.So skill development and TVET policies are at the center of the response required to promote continuing development. There is a shortage of skilled workers and inadequate reserve of skilled talent. A labor market survey in Xinjiang in 2011 shows that 71.8% of enterprises consider it ishard to findlaborers; 69.0% of the enterprises experience difficulties in recruitment;and 30.1% of enterprises find difficulties in recruiting professional technicians[12]. Taking the coal industry as anexample, the current ratio of professional technicians and managers is far below the national average in thelarger coal mines. This is the main constraint forfurther developing the coal industryin the Province[13].To provide a workforce that fits economic development demands better workforce development through TVET. Thisishighlighted as the most efficient and forceful meansfor a Xinjiang development strategy.The Xinjiang 12th Five Year Education Development Plan has set the goals of promoting secondary vocational education, making TVET more attractive, and narrowing the gap between TVET provision and industrial demands.
- Status of TVET System
(1) TVET System
The formaleducational system in Xinjiang is the same as for other parts of the country: after the pre-school education (3-6 years old),nine years of compulsory education is followed (6 years of primary school, and 3 years of junior secondary school).General educationincludes 3 years of senior secondary and 3 to 4 (college or university level) years of higher education.The technical or vocational track includes secondary vocational education (covering vocational high school, technical school, and skilled worker school) and 3-year vocational colleges and professional institutions (polytechnics). All the technical and vocational schools are mainly administered by the departments of education, andhuman resources social security. Table 3 provides details of general and vocational educations in Xinjiang in 2010.Vocational schools and colleges also offer short-term training programs. Most of short-term training programs are provided bytraining institutes outside the formaleducation system. There are limited data for these training except the number of training institutes and trainees.
Figure 6 Xinjiang TVET System
Source: Author’s construction.
TVETsystem in Xinjiang was resumed during the 1980’s after the Reform and Opening up in China. In the 1990’s two important acts defined the legal framework for workforce development in China and in Xinjiang. They are theVocational Education Law (1996),and the Higher Education Law (1998). Guided by the national policies, a series of policy documents have been promulgated by Xinjiang’sGovernment giving TVET a priority in education and workforce development. Then TVET,especiallytertiary vocational education,begin toexpand rapidly. Keydocuments describing the definition and implementation of the policies at this level of education include:Decisions on Accelerating Vocational Training to Enhance Workforce Qualification (2001); Implementation of the State Council Decision on Forcefully Promoting Reform and Development of Vocational Education (2003); Notice on Developing Vocational Education and Skill Training (2005). TVET reform and development has also been included into the Xinjiang Medium and Long-term Talent Development Plan (2010-2020); in the Xinjiang Medium and Long-term Educational Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020);and in the Xinjiang12th Five Year Education Development Plan.
Xinjiang TVET expanded rapidly in the past 10 years. Total enrollmentin secondary vocational schools increased from 160,000 in 2001 to 261,600 in 2010, and enrollment in the tertiary vocational schools increased to 111,800. However TVET remains a weak segment in terms of both size and quality compared with general education. In 2010, the number of TVET schools, admissions, school students, and graduates were all less than general education at the same level. In terms of enrollment, ratios of students in general education against vocational education were62:38 and 55:45 at secondary and tertiary levels respectively. In terms of school administration, TVET teachers’ qualificationshave lower standards than generaleducation;however TVET teachers have heavier teaching loads, since the student/teacher ratio is a bit higher than general education. With respect to investment, the ratio of budgetary financefor the total educational investment in vocational education ismuch lower than that of general education. In terms of per student budgetary finance, both vocational high schools and vocational collegeshave lower expenditures per student than general senior schools and universities.
Table 3 Xinjiang Education System in2010
Source: Chinese Statistical Yearbook, 2011; Chinese Educational Funds Statistical Yearbook, 2011
(2) Mismatch between TVET Supply and Demand
TVET Supply in Xinjiang does not meet the demand of studentscompleting compulsory education.The nine years compulsory education is basically universalized, and the net enrollment rates of primary and junior secondary school are 99.73% and 97.26% respectively. However the capacity of senior secondary schools, colleges and universities is far from satisfying the demand accordingto graduates.The progression rate into higher level education - number of enrollment at the higherleveleducation divided by number of graduates at current education level- gives the story.In 2010, theprogression rate of junior secondary graduateswas 84.5%, which was lower than the national average of 90.9%; the progressionrate ofsenior secondarygraduateswas 54.2%, which was far below the national average of 83.3% (Table 4). All these have shown that about 15.5% junior secondary graduates and 46.1% of senior secondary graduates enter into the labor market without receiving formal vocational education (exclusive of students entering into senior secondary vocational schools). These graduates could be employed, self-employed or unemployed temporarily.One major reason for the low percentage is the insufficient number of schools and vacancies to enroll the students. General education in China focuses on preparing students for the next higher level of education(Yang, 2007)[14], so vocational education and training can serve as a bridge in equipping graduates with work-oriented training which is obviously in favor of productivity enhancement.