Vocational students' competition underway

The 2014 National Vocational Students Skills Competition is now taking place in 12 competition areas, including Beijing and Tianjin.

Launched by the Ministry of Education for secondary and higher vocational students in 2008, the competition has taken place six times. This year's competition is organized by the Education Ministry together with 30 ministries, commissions and local governments. The event began May 31 and will continue until June 27.

More than 10,000 vocational school students are taking part in this year's competition under the guidance and instruction of more than 6,000 teachers.

The competition covers a wide range of techniques and skills that vocational students acquired at school, including cooking, artistic flower arranging, repair of agricultural machinery, mineral selection, robot technology, tour guide service and nursing skills.

Among them, more than a third are about strategic emerging industries, such as 4G networks cloud security and 3-D modeling.

"It indicates the competition's principle of combining the nurturing of talent together with the development of industries," said Ge Daokai, director of the ministry's vocational and adult education department.

The competition also gathered a group of established enterprises, such as Lenovo China, ZTE, Volkswagen China and Siemens to provide venues, service, guidance and suggestions, Ge said.

Along with the competition, a round-table meeting will be held on June 26 in Tianjin for vocational school principals from China and the United Kingdom to exchange their experiences in school management and talent training.