Vocational grads see more jobs than college grads

Vocational school graduates are seeing employment rates topping 95%, higher than for college graduates, according to a report published by the Ministry of Education on Feb 27.

There were 13,093 secondary vocational schools with 22 million students in China in 2011. In 2012, 82 percent of the students were from rural areas, said Wang Jiping, chief editor of the Report on Development and Employment of Secondary Vocational School Students.

But Su Yang, a researcher with Development Research Center of the State Council, said that with high employment rates, secondary vocational education is poorly recognized by society.

Secondary vocational schools include ordinary secondary vocational schools, technical schools, vocational high schools and secondary vocational schools for adults. 

In recent years, Chinese college graduates have seen increasing employment pressure. In 2011, the employment rate for college graduates half a year after graduation was 90.2%, according to statistics by MyCOS Data.

While China's college and university graduates have difficulty finding good jobs, a shortage of skilled vocational workers has continued to vex the country's industries.

At the end of 2011, China lacked about 6.4 million skilled workers, according to data from the ministry's vocational department.