A systematic literature review on the reform of vocational education in China

Abstract

In recent years, vocational education reform has become an issue of common concern for the government, academia, and the education sector, as the difficulty in finding employment for Chinese university students and the labor shortage of senior technical personnel continue to intensify. This study conducted a systematic review of the literature on vocational education reform in the past decade, analyzing 61 pieces of literature from two major aspects, namely reform research objects and reform research directions, during the period of 2014–2023. The results of the analyses show that the current major directions of vocational education reform are the combination of teaching and practice, multi-skilling, teacher enhancement, and policy reform. The main research objects include overall vocational education, hierarchical vocational education, professional and curricular reforms, and reform studies for different provinces and regions.

Keywords:

• Vocational education reform object
• integration of teaching and practice
• policy reform
• multi-skills
• teaching and faculty

Reviewing Editor:

• May Cheng, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Subjects:

• Adult Education and Lifelong Learning
• Education Policy & Politics
• Higher Education
• International & Comparative Education
• Secondary Education

Introduction

Vocational education is significant for Chinese education because, compared with basic education and general undergraduate education, vocational education has a closer relationship with economic and social development, aiming to cultivate technical and skilled personnel at the front line of the job to serve social and economic construction (Jia, 2015). As a manufacturing country, the status of China’s vocational education is evident, but it is undeniable that in the process of developing vocational education in China, it also faces multiple problems. The type of identity of vocational education has never been recognized (Li & Shi, 2020), and the concept that vocational education is lower than general higher education has existed in China for a long time, which seriously restricts vocational education development (Jia, 2015), as well as the measures of school running and teaching concepts, which are urgently in need of updating (Yang, 2017). There is a serious structural imbalance between China’s industrial economy and talent demand (Jia, 2015), school-led vocational education is unable to adapt to industrial demand, the basic policy framework for enterprise participation has not been established, and the representative role of industry partners is weak (Wang et al., 2020). Teachers in vocational education lack practical experience, and their practical teaching produces great limitations (Liu, 2019). In the last decade, vocational education has been reformed and developed, and a policy document named ‘20 Items on Vocational Education’ has established the status of vocational education as a type of education in China (Huang, 2023). The VET college entrance examination system has been established, and it is proposed that the VET college entrance examination will be a 'new entrance’ for the acquisition of high-quality vocational education student groups (Huang, 2023). Drawing on the 'dual system’, summarizing the pilot experience of the modern apprenticeship system and the new type of apprenticeship system in enterprises, and flexibly adjusting the professional settings (Wu & Zhu, 2020). The government proposed the launch of the 1 + X certificate pilot in 2019 (Peng, 2020) and amended the Vocational Education Law in 2022. There have been many studies on China’s vocational education reform in the past decade, but a summary overview of the overall research situation is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the literature review on the overall research on vocational education in China in the past decade. By summarizing and analyzing the literature, we expect to have a more comprehensive literature reference and provide new research ideas for future studies, as well as some theoretical references for policymakers. The research will focus on the following two directions:

1. The vocational education reform object.

2. The direction of vocational education reform.

Methodology

Literature search and identification

In this study, we followed the principles and guidelines of the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020 statement (Page et al., 2021). The literature search was conducted on CNKI.net, and we used the following methods and keywords for the search: title, abstract, and keywords including vocational education reform, or any of them including vocational education reform. The literature search interval was from 2014 to October 2023, because research on vocational education has received more attention after 2014 due to the notice of the Construction Plan for Modern Vocational Education System (2014–2020), which was issued by the Ministry of Education and other six departments of China in June 2014, and published by the Ministry of Education and other departments of China. This search generated 887 hits.

Literature screen and selection

We screened the relevant literature according to the process shown in Figure 1 below. Firstly, a total of 16 duplicate articles were removed, and then the screening was carried out in the following steps: 1) The topic of the study was vocational education reform. 2) The content of the study was highly relevant to vocational education reform. 3) The object of the study was highly relevant to vocational education in China. Through the above screening, 641 articles were excluded, and 230 articles were included in the next screening step. Then, we reviewed these 230 articles by full-text screening and finally included 90 articles. To assess the eligibility of the remaining 90 articles, we adopted more specific evaluation criteria based on the summary of the screened articles, i.e. the included studies must be focused on the reform of vocational education in China, and at the same time, they also raised relevant issues or reform measures. Through the above screening process, we excluded 29 articles and finally included 61 articles in the final review.

Figure 1. Flowchart of literature search and selection.

Source: Authors.

Literature coding and analysis

To conduct a more systematic and comprehensive analysis of the target literature, we read through the overall literature and summarized it according to the reform object of the study and the direction of reform, respectively. All 61 articles describe the different objectives of reform, and 53 articles examine the direction of reform. Based on the generalization, we classified the objects of reform into 4 categories: overall vocational education, hierarchical vocational education, sub-specialty/program, and subregion/province and city, the specific classification description is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Categorization and coding category descriptions of the reform object.

Reform object of study	Descriptions	Examples
Overall Vocational Education	Overall reform of China’s vocational education system	Vocational education system of China, reform of vocational education policy, and research on foreign experience in reforming vocational education
Hierarchical Vocational education	Secondary vocational education, higher vocational education	Reforms at different levels of secondary vocational education, higher vocational education, undergraduate vocational education, etc.
Sub-division of specializations/courses	Reform of vocational education in different specializations, reform of vocational education curricula	Reform of skilled workers, construction and other specializations, reform of different technical schools, reform of vocational education curricula
Sub-region / province	Reform of different provinces and cities, rural and peasant vocational education	Reforms in different provinces and cities, reforms in rural vocational education, modernization of agriculture, and training of new types of vocational farmers

Source: Authors.

There are many research directions for reform in the target literature, and after summarizing the different emphases of the reform directions. The direction of reform was also classified into 4 categories: focusing on teaching and practice, focusing on multi-skills, focusing on teaching, and teaching staff, as well as focusing on policy reform, the specific classification description is shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Categorization and coding category descriptions of the direction of reform.

The Direction of Reform	Descriptions	Examples
Focus on the integration of teaching and practice	School-enterprise cooperation and integration of production and education, apprenticeship system, binary system	Involving enterprises in the teaching and learning activities of vocational education, setting up enterprise training bases or school-enterprise co-construction studios, and referring to the European modern apprenticeship model, the German dual system model, and other reform directions
Focus on multi-skills	‘1 + X’ certificate system	Allow students to obtain multiple vocational skills certificates while obtaining academic certificates.
Focus on teaching and faculty	Dual teacher	Establishing a dual-teacher team through teachers’ training in enterprises, hiring part-time teachers, and building a team of teachers jointly by schools and enterprises.
Focus on policy reform	Focus on research related to vocational education policy.	From hierarchical education to types of education, opening the upward pathway of vocational education, vocational undergraduate education.

Source: Authors.

To further refine the literature analysis, we conducted a side-by-side analysis of all literature included in the analysis and labeled it as Primary, secondary, and partially involved. The specific categorization of the literature focus is detailed in Appendix A.

Findings

Most of the 61 papers included in the study used qualitative or mixed research methods, and some were empirical studies. The selected articles include overall vocational education reform studies, vocational education reform studies at different levels, such as secondary, higher, and vocational undergraduate, vocational education with subdivided professional studies, and vocational education reform studies in different regions. In this section, we will elucidate the research on the reform of vocational education and the different directions of the reform in different research subjects one by one according to the classification.

Reform object of literature

All the articles selected for inclusion in the assessment contained different reform research objects, and the research objects of vocational education reform were categorized into the following four categories:

Overall vocational education

There are 30 pieces of literature related to China’s overall vocational education, and these 30 studies explore the country’s overall vocational education reform from different paths of vocational education reform. The reform of vocational education as a whole object has been studied separately in terms of the overall reform turn, policies, institutions, and the direction of the reform system. A study point out that China’s vocational education should achieve three major transformations, i.e. in terms of the education model, it should be transformed from referring to general education to type education, in terms of the development path, it should be transformed from being dominated by administrative orders to proactively adapting to the needs of social and industrial development, and in terms of the positioning of running a school, it should be transformed from academic education to ‘academic education + social service’ (Ren, 2020). Wu & Zhu in response to the target framework of reforming the modernization of vocational education, put forward that the structure of vocational education should be optimized to ensure continuity in the hierarchy, break through the finality of education issued by 'employment orientation’, move from boundaries to cross-boundaries, continue to deepen the integration of industry and education and the cooperation between schools and enterprises, continue to enhance the attractiveness of vocational education, and continuously improve the social service capacity of vocational education, enhance the social service capacity of vocational education (2020). Zhao said that deepening the integration of industry and education, and school-enterprise cooperation is a breakthrough in promoting the development of modern vocational education (2022). Another study pointed out that the modern apprenticeship system can be fully utilized to the advantage of both enterprises and schools, combine the theory and practice of students’ learning, and achieve full employment upon graduation, and the introduction of this system in China is significant (Yu, 2016).

Six of the 30 studies focused on government roles and policy research, emphasizing that each vocational institution should carry out overall vocational education reform by grasping the policy direction. In 2019, the State Council issued the National Vocational Education Reform Implementation Program (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Program’). The Program deferred the boundaries of vocational education to vocational training, labor education, and vocational initiation education while proposing to improve the vocational education and training system (Zha & Li, 2019). The Program also plans reform tasks in several dimensions, including institutional framework, national standards, mechanisms for working with people, schooling patterns, and policy guarantees (Li & Shi, 2020). The newly revised Vocational Education Law clarifies that 'vocational education is a type of education that has the same importance as general education’ (Xiong, 2022). Article 20 of VET proposes for the first time to establish a 'vocational education college entrance examination’ system and improve the 'cultural quality + vocational skills’ examination and enrolment method (Huang, 2023).

Five (5) items are related to institutions, vocational colleges should also be transformed according to national policy directions and development needs. Vocational colleges and universities should transform from traditional theoretical teaching to application-based teaching and should ensure that the educational and teaching work has a strong application value (Liu, 2019). Liu also pointed out that vocational colleges and universities should actively take up the heavy responsibility of curriculum reform and strengthen the efforts to build a dual-teacher teaching team (2019). Some scholars also said that the state should actively carry out institutional reform pilots, reform and innovate school running, and advocate the 'school-enterprise cooperation’ model (Yang, 2017). Vocational colleges and universities must strengthen cooperation with enterprises, and strengthen the integration of industry and education, to make teaching closer to production (Luo, 2023).

8 studies draw on foreign experience in the reform of vocational education development. One study indicated that China should refer to the German dual system model, oriented to vocational education curriculum and teaching, make a good macro top-level design of reform, revise and improve relevant regulations and laws, and establish a sustainable development of vocational education alliance (E T, 2018). Other scholars conducted a comparative study of Germany’s 'dual system’, Switzerland’s 'triad system’ and France’s 'dual track system’, indicating that China should establish internationalized schooling channels, carry out domestic and foreign joint schooling, and increase the participation of enterprises in vocational education to innovate the talent cultivation mode (Jia, 2015). Other studies have pointed out that China can also learn from the experience of the development of modern apprenticeships in the UK in the process of promoting vocational education reform and establishing work-task-centered curriculum content, etc. (Qi, 2014). Li also said in another study on French vocational education reform that China should promote the construction of apprenticeships (2018). Another study on French vocational education said that China should improve the employment counseling and guidance system, develop continuing vocational education, and encourage lifelong learning for practitioners (Wu & Yu, 2017). In addition, a study pointed out that the Ministry of Education started to promote the promotion of modern apprenticeship pilots with enterprise participation in 2014, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Finance also launched new enterprise apprenticeship pilots in 2015 (Wang et al., 2020).

Hierarchical vocational education

The study was on the reform of hierarchical vocational education mainly including secondary vocational education, higher vocational education, and undergraduate vocational education, 14 studies reported on hierarchical vocational education, 8 papers focused on the study of hierarchical vocational education, and the rest of the papers referred to hierarchical vocational education in the studies focusing on other aspects. Hierarchical vocational education emphasizes the importance of the system and proposes reforms to open up the upward mobility of vocational talents, such as secondary and higher vocational integration and specialization.

5 studies examined the reform of secondary vocational education and higher vocational education, respectively. Wang suggested in his study that secondary vocational education needs to increase financial investment, establish a sound institutionalized school-enterprise cooperation mechanism, optimize specialization, reform curriculum development, and improve the status of frontline teachers (2019). Another scholar said that in the reform of secondary vocational education, the state and localities should introduce employment-oriented policies in favor of secondary vocational students and clarify the employment principles of enterprises (Zhou, 2017). Another study proposed that the top-level design of secondary vocational education should make fundamental changes in terms of system and mechanism (Qiu, 2017). Wu& Zhu stated that the restrictions of secondary vocational education in the whole education system should be broken, and the channels of further education should be opened (2023). A study also pointed out that a vocational education system integrating middle and higher vocational education should be established to realize the integration of middle and higher vocational education through the integration of middle and higher vocational cultivation objectives, the integration of main courses and teaching contents, and the integration of experimental and practical training (Wu & Bai, 2015).

Three literatures have examined undergraduate vocational education, and the development of undergraduate-level vocational education is of great significance to the comprehensive construction of a modern vocational education system and is a major initiative to realize that vocational education is ‘of different types and of equal importance’ (Liao, 2020). Liao also suggests that reforms of vocational education at the undergraduate level in China require the improvement of the national, local, and national education systems. Liao also suggests that the reform of vocational education at the undergraduate level in China requires the improvement of regulations at the national and local levels, and the establishment of a comprehensive college entrance examination system for vocational education at the undergraduate level (2020), emphasizing the importance of the system in the development of undergraduate VET. In addition to the vocational education gaokao, middle-budget integration is another mode of VET undergraduate development. Shanghai’s '3 + 4' middle and undergraduate coherence, as a new model to improve the modern vocational education system, has been the first in many provinces and cities such as Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai, and Jilin (Nian, 2020). Another study indicated that Jiangsu Province has enrolled 180,000 students in the 'Specialized Connecting to University’ project since its implementation 10 years ago (Zhu & Shen, 2019).

Sub-division of specializations/courses

Six (6) studies stated about the reform of vocational education in different professions and programs. These include jade carving, art, architecture, health, and PE. Jade carving, as a traditional craft, should focus on the integration of industry and education, modern apprenticeship, and cross-border innovation in vocational education reform with a view to inheritance (Liu, 2020). The reform of art education needs to reform the teaching system and enhance professional exchanges and training (Lin, 2020). Fang et al. pointed out that the reform of vocational education in the construction profession needs to focus on the landing of 'book and certificate integration’ and the cultivation of artisanal spirit, as well as the need to build a dual-teacher teaching force (2019). The reform of health vocational education should focus on the top-level design, rational setting of the curriculum system, and focus on the humanities and social sciences education and vocational training of students (Pan et al.), and another study said that attention should be paid to the teacher team of health vocational education (Chen, 2021). Cui’s study on the reform of PE vocational education said that physical education should be adjusted according to the teaching conditions of the school, the environmental climate, and other factors of the courses offered, and apply internet technology to diversify teaching methods (2019). The focus of reform for each specialty is different, but the reform in terms of teacher strength is generally valued.

Sub-region/province

Based on central reform policy documents and local realities, there were 10 studies on vocational education reform in different regions, 6 articles on rural vocational education reform, and 4 studies focusing on reforms in other areas referring to reforms in different regions.

In the literature on vocational education reform by region, Tang’s study on Tianjin City indicated the need to break through the bottleneck of conversion between vocational education and general education and allow the market mechanism to play a decisive role in the construction of school resources, teacher resources, and teacher salary systems for vocational education (2015). In another study on Fujian Province, it was also pointed out that '3 + 2' and '3 + 4' enrolment modes should be implemented, and the articulation between secondary and higher vocational education, secondary and undergraduate education, and higher vocational education and undergraduate education should be done well (Wu, 2016). E T.’s study on the reform of Beijing’s vocational education also indicated that the center of gravity of development should be shifted higher and high-end technical talents should be cultivated through articulation (2016). Another study on Henan Province pointed out the need to focus on improving the quality of talent training and accelerating the construction of a modernized vocational education system (Yin, 2016). The reform studies in the above provinces and cities focus on opening the upward pathway of vocational education and cultivating high-level technical talents. In a study on vocational education reform in Jiangsu Province, it was suggested that school-enterprise alliances should be created to give full play to the advantages of group-run schools and to implement the clustered development of vocational education (Zhao, 2016). Deng also pointed out the need to innovate the mode of running schools to release the vitality of vocational education development in a study on vocational education reform in Qinghai Province (2018). Another study examined vocational education reform in Shandong and Hubei, indicating the need to optimize the hierarchical structure of vocational education, deepen the integration of industry and education, and school-enterprise cooperation (Zhan & Chen, 2021). More emphasis was placed on the reform and innovation of the schooling model in these studies. At the same time, we found that the reform of vocational education for provinces, municipalities, and regions was more focused in 2016.

In the reform of rural vocational education, except for the study of the institutional system, the shortage of teachers and funds is the focus, and the cultivation of new types of vocational farmers is an important direction for development. Han indicated that the rural vocational education system should be improved, and the effectiveness of rural vocational education should be enhanced (2020). The reform of rural vocational education needs to increase the investment of funds and innovate the system of teacher training and tenure (Li, 2017). There should also be a synergy between talent cultivation and the support of specialty industries, the synergy between public financial support and market promotion, and the cultivation of vocational farmers (Tang, 2015). Another scholar also pointed out that the construction of rural vocational education teacher teams should be actively carried out, the training reform should be increased, and talent cultivation should be goal-oriented (Yu, 2021). Pan explained the cultivation of new vocational farmers and the establishment of a high-quality rural vocational teacher team in his study (2016). Another study proposes the need to be rural orientated, in-depth rural and field research (Xu et al., 2021).

The direction of reform

Concerning studies on the direction of reforms in vocational education, we found a total of 35 studies in which the direction of reforms focused on the integration of teaching and practice, multi-skilling, teaching and faculty, and policy reforms.

Focus on the integration of teaching and practice

There are 18 articles focusing on the combination of teaching and practice, which are subdivided into three aspects: 'dual system’, school-enterprise cooperation, integration of industry and education, as well as an apprenticeship.

Firstly, there are 6 articles focusing on the direction of 'dual system’ reform. Enterprises play a key role in Germany’s 'dual system’ education model, and the participation of enterprises in vocational education in China needs to be jointly guided by multiple government departments (Jia, 2015). The 'dual system’ vocational education model has great significance to China’s current efforts to expand the scale of higher vocational education, improve the quality of talent cultivation, and realize vocational education as a service for socio-economic development (Zhang, 2023). Xiong also proposed that the 'dual teacher’ system model can meet the needs of social development for talents, the need for young people’s growth, the need for school running and governing, and the need for vocational education development (2014). In addition, the realization of the 'dual system’ reform needs to be oriented toward vocational education curriculum and teaching, a good macroscopic top-level design of the reform, and the revision and improvement of relevant laws and regulations (E T, 2018). Another study also suggests that it is necessary to refer to the German 'dual system model’, further improve the regulatory system, and encourage enterprises to open vocational education schools that meet their own development needs, etc. (Yang, 2017). The 'dual teacher’ system reform direction focuses more on the role of enterprises.

Secondly, there are seven (7) articles focusing on the direction of school-enterprise cooperation and industry-teaching integration reform. They generally emphasized that the government should play a linking role in school-enterprise cooperation. A study indicated that vocational education in China needs to break the institutional and mechanical barriers of the school-enterprise collaborative education model, build industry-teaching integration bases by schools and enterprises, and strengthen practical teaching and parenting (Xin, 2019). The integration of industry and education can be deepened by optimizing the policy environment, realizing the government’s promotion of school-enterprise cooperation, continuously enriching the content of school-enterprise cooperation, and extending the space for vocational colleges and universities to run schools (Fan, 2023). Wu & Yu also said that it should be up to the government to advocate cooperation between schools and enterprises and take the lead in the work of building a resource platform (2017). Another study emphasized that the government, schools, industries, and enterprises should reach a consensus on integration and development and establish a strong interest bond, and deeper strategic cooperation between institutions and enterprises should be established (Xing & He, 2020). Some studies also proposed that a basic institutional framework to promote stable cooperation between schools and enterprises should be established at an early stage, and the obligations and rights of enterprises to train talents in the behavior of students and in-service employees should be clarified (Wang et al., 2020). Zhao also pointed out that the endogenous motivation of industry and enterprises to help vocational education should be enhanced through the government’s coordination of the layout and supervision, and that the dual-theme collaborative education between schools and enterprises should be strengthened (2022). In addition, some studies indicated that strengthening the integration of industry and education can be done by strengthening the construction of practical training bases, strengthening the construction of teachers, organizing, and implementing practical training teaching jointly by schools and enterprises, and carrying out the construction of professions, curricula, and teaching materials jointly (Luo, 2023).

Finally, there are five (5) pieces of literature focusing on the direction of apprenticeship reform. Qi suggested that the establishment of a modern apprenticeship system requires further strengthening of school-enterprise cooperation, improving the corresponding legal and regulatory system, increasing the investment in vocational education, establishing work-task-centered curriculum content, and increasing the proportion of practical competence assessment (2014). Some studies suggest taking enterprises to the leading role in the apprenticeship system, promoting the participation of enterprises throughout the whole process, and promoting the method of financial incentives (Li, 2018). Fu also stated that the modern apprenticeship system can only make great progress if the enthusiasm of enterprises is improved and said that the government must provide strong legal protection (2018). Yu also emphasized the importance of top-level design in developing a modern apprenticeship system, and reforming the schooling and management system, supporting regulations and systems that should be established and improved (2016). Overall, the establishment of the apprenticeship system attaches importance to the role of enterprises and the improvement of the government’s relevant legal framework.

Focus on Multi-skills

Seven (7) of the literature included in the study emphasized the reform direction of multi-skill development, i.e. the 1 + X certificate system. Vocational education under the 1 + X certificate system aims at the cultivation of composite technical talents, which is in line with the intrinsic and developmental trend of vocational education (Wang, 2022). Peng indicated that the implementation of the 1 + X certificate system requires optimizing the curriculum structure, building a curriculum based on the ‘public basic courses + professional theory courses + professional skills courses’, develop teaching contents of professional skills under the requirements of the 'X' vocational skills registration assessment, introduce more industrial and industry experts into the school to provide guidance and strengthen the on- and off-campus internship and training bases (2020). Qi also suggests that 1 + X certificate needs to be efficiently integrated into the classroom by enterprise tutors, to achieve the integration of courses and certificates (2022). Lu & Xu’s study suggests that the implementation of the 1 + X certificate system needs to revise the talent cultivation program, reconstruct the curricular system, teaching methods, and evaluation mechanism, strengthen the training of teachers, and renovate the practical training base (2022). Another study also highlighted the need to strengthen the curriculum system and improve the matching of the curriculum content system (Wang & Li, 2021). Moreover, a study proposed the establishment of a credit bank as a solution for recognizing and transferring learning outcomes for the 1 + X certificate system (Ning & Wei, 2022). Other scholars point out that the implementation of the 1 + X certificate system provides a good opportunity for the establishment of a national vocational education qualification framework (Li, 2019). Focusing on the implementation of the 1 + X certificate system that fosters multi-skilled and composite talents requires attention to curriculum reform, supporting faculty, and the practice of skills.

Focus on teaching and faculty

Six (6) articles elaborated on the reform of teaching and faculty, suggesting that the vocational education reform requires the establishment of a 'dual teacher’ faculty, and attention to the practical experience and practice of the faculty. One of them focuses on the path of 'dual-teacher’ teacher training, proposing the need to establish a new system of 'government, industry, enterprises and schools’ to collaboratively promote dual-teacher training, to set different serious standards for dual-teachers according to different disciplines and ranks, and to encourage enterprises to participate more in the education and teaching reform and realize the mutual employment between enterprise 'engineers’ and university teachers (Wei, 2020). Another study also indicated that the construction of dual-teacher teams can be strengthened from two aspects, vocational colleges and universities can arrange the teachers to participate in the century work in cooperative enterprises to increase their practical experience or hire experts in the professional field or the technical backbone of the enterprises to enter the school to train the teachers to improve the comprehensive ability of the teachers (Liu, 2019). Xiong also indicated that adherence to the cultivation of dual teachers should be through the self-improvement of the teachers, further training, enterprise exercise, and study abroad to create conditions for post-service training of vocational teachers (2014). Another scholar suggests that the assessment of vocational college teachers should focus on the number of skillful talents cultivated, and it is important to reform the mode of teacher assessment, as well as to improve the income of teachers in vocational colleges, encourage and support their entrepreneurship and social part-time jobs (Tang, 2015). Other studies have suggested that Internet technology can be applied to diversify teaching methods (Cui, 2019).

Focus on policy reform

A total of 24 papers have examined policy reform in vocational education reform from varying degrees, 8 of those articles focusing on policy reform research, 11 articles examining policy reform alongside other elements, and 5 articles mentioning the importance of policy reform in their research. Zha & Li examined the Implementation Program for the Reform of Vocational Education at Home, stating that the Program clarifies the status of the type of vocational education, expands the boundaries of vocational education, requires the diversification of the source of vocational education, strengthens the employment orientation of vocational education, makes an important breakthrough in the key system, and provides a policy basis for the integration of industry and education (2019). Ren also stated that the Program guides the direction of China’s vocational education reform and the arrangement of the tasks, the vocational education reform can be based on this type of education, industry development demand-oriented transformation (2020). Other scholars said that the implementation of the policy of 'connecting the middle school to the university’ and 'connecting the university to the specialty’ in some regions has opened the channels for the academic upgrading of specialized students, alleviated the difficulties in the development of vocational education, and helped to improve the national vocational education system (Nian, 2020. Zhu & Shen, 2019). Li & Shi also stated that the Program not only clarifies the status of vocational education type education but also plans the 'future blueprint’ of typological reform and the path of reform action (2020). Xiong’s study of the newly revised Vocational Education Law pointed out that the compulsory education stage should provide appropriate labor education, the integration of general education and vocational education should be promoted at the senior secondary school level, in addition, a vocational education Gaokao system equal to the general entrance examination should be established, these comprehensive vocational education reforms still need to be implemented by more detailed policy reforms (2022). Some other studies have also elaborated on the necessity of policy reforms in terms of the implementation of the 1 + X certificate system, the construction of credit banks, the deepening of the integration of industry and education, and the strengthening of the 'dual teacher’ teaching force (Peng, 2020. Wang 2022. Ning & Wei, 2022. Xin, 2019. Liu, 2019). We can see that the reform of national policy leads the overall reform direction of vocational education, it is also the cornerstone and premise for the implementation of other directions of vocational education reform.

Results and discussion

This study summarizes literature studies on vocational education reform in China over the decade 2014–2023, as far as our knowledge, this is the first systematic literature review of vocational education reform in China over this interval. The results of the study provide the main objectives and major reform directions in the literature studies of vocational education reform in China during this period. In China’s vocational education reform, the reform directions of the reform objects are closely linked and mutually reinforcing. The reform targets include national vocational education in general, levels, specialized curricula, regional implementation, etc., and a comprehensive framework highlighting the diverse characteristics and specific challenges of the vocational education system is well established. Reform targets require targeted reform approaches, such as aligning with national policies, increasing financial and teacher resources, and integrating education with practical training. Accordingly, reform directions are tailored to different targets, but with greater emphasis on the integration of teaching and practice, multi-skilling, teaching and faculty capacity, and policy reform. For example, the integration of teaching and practice reflects the practical, hands-on nature of vocational education, responds directly to the reform goals of leveling and specialization, and promotes comprehensive quality and the enhancement of teacher strength. Finally, policy reforms need to be continuously improved to support the entire vocational education system, to accomplish the reform goals at the national level. Therefore, establishing different reform directions for different reform targets is a strategic extension of the reform goals, which is more helpful for comprehensive reform and implementation of vocational education to enhance and improve the overall vocational education situation in China.

Reform object of literature

55 of the papers included in our study addressed different research objects of vocational education reform. In this article, we classified the objects of reform research into four categories, ie. overall national vocational education reform, reforms at different levels, reforms in different specializations and courses, and reforms in different regions or provinces. These categories confirm the existence of different characteristics of different reform objects in China’s vocational education reform and the need for specific problems to be analyzed in the reform process.

Firstly, in overall vocational education, attention needs to be paid to the overall national policy and the construction of the vocational education system. The status of vocational education as a 'type of education’ has now been established in the Program, a variety of reforms have been proposed, and vocational colleges and universities need to refine their reforms by the national policy. Secondly, in hierarchical vocational education reform, attention needs to be paid to financial inputs, teacher strength, and curriculum reforms in secondary education, as well as opening the upward pathways of secondary and higher vocational education, improving undergraduate vocational education through middle and basic education, and the Vocational Education Higher Education Examination (VEHE) to improve China’s vocational education system. Thirdly, although the research focus of different professions and curriculum reforms varies, it is generally emphasized that vocational education needs to pay more attention to the combination of education and practice, to improve the building of teaching staff, and to carry out reforms of the curriculum system to cultivate practical talents. Finally, studies of different regions and provinces also emphasized the importance of teachers and faculty, the need to build a dual-teacher and more practically experienced faculty, the need for reforms in different regions to be integrated with local realities, and the need for rural vocational education to receive more investment, support, and attention.

The direction of reform

Our literature review also summarized the directions of reform studied in the existing literature. A total of 43 studies have explained the direction of reform in Chinese vocational education. We classified the different directions of reform into four categories based on their different emphases, i.e. focusing on the integration of teaching and practice, multi-skilling, teaching and faculty strength, and policy reform.

Studies found that the reform direction focusing on the integration of teaching and practice includes the integration of vocational education with the German dual system, the strengthening of school-enterprise cooperation, the importance of the government’s role as an intermediary between schools and enterprises to achieve the integration of education and production, and the establishment of an apprenticeship system based on the experience of the UK in the development of vocational education. The direction of reform focusing on multi-skills mainly elaborates on the 1 + X certificate system, proposing that the implementation of the system requires an emphasis on curriculum reform based on the requirements of the certificate, strengthening practical training in skills, and building up a team of teachers according to the needs, to truly implement the X skills training, and to establish a national qualification framework for vocational education through the implementation of the certificate. In the study focusing on teaching and teacher capacity, the main emphasis was on the issue of the teaching force, proposing the establishment of a 'dual teacher’ teaching force and enriching the sources of vocational education teachers, such as hiring technical personnel from enterprises to teach. In addition, the income of vocational education teachers should be raised, and emphasis should be placed on teacher training. More importantly, due to the differences in teaching objectives, a different system should be established for the assessment of vocational education teachers from that of other tertiary education. In the policy-focused study, the role of policy in vocational education reform is emphasized on the one hand, on the other hand, the direction of reform proposed in the Program and the Vocational Education Law is analyzed. The above policies and regulations establish the status of vocational education as a 'type of education’ and put forward the idea of integration of vocational education and universal education in the compulsory schooling stage. Vocational education reform needs more policy support to further enhance the overall vocational education system.

Limitations

We believe that the current study has some limitations. Firstly, although we have conducted a systematic study of articles on reform of the vocational education in China, it is difficult to go on to summarize the results and outputs of China’s current vocational education reforms due to the variability of reforms in different regions, the long timeline from the enactment of the policy, and its implementation to the completion of the reforms. Secondly, the literature search was based on keywords, and there may be some literature that does not contain keywords related to vocational education reform, but the actual research content related to vocational education reform was not included in the study. Finally, the basic data of this paper all comes from CNKI.net and the relevant research literature that the CNKI index does not provide to search is not included, which means that we have missed some relevant research in this field.

Implications

With the aggravation of the employment difficulties of Chinese university students and the shortage of skilled personnel in recent years, as well as the introduction of the national plan for the revitalization of the countryside, the reform of vocational education has once again become a hot topic and an important way out to solve the imbalance between the supply of and demand for talents. Our review and summary of the papers on reform of the vocational education in China over the past 10 years can serve as a theoretical basis for future researchers to conduct research and innovation on vocational education reform and provide some overall potential directions for future research.

In terms of the objects of research, we have classified the objects of vocational education research in existing studies into four categories, which provide some more specific directions for research on vocational education reform. Due to the differences in different provinces and regions, the review and summary of vocational education reform in different regions and rural areas may help future research on rural vocational education reform in rural revitalization. For the summary of research on different levels of vocational education, we find that the current problem of poor upward mobility in vocational education is prominent, and opening the upward mobility of vocational education may become an important area of reform and research in the future, to perfect the vocational education system to cultivate high-level technical talents needed for social development.

In terms of the research direction of reform, there are many different reform directions, and we have categorized them into four major groups according to their focus: focusing on the combination of teaching and practice, focusing on multi-skills, focusing on teaching and teacher strength, and focusing on policy reform. For researchers, the categorization of the directions can make them more aware of the shortcomings of the current reforms and the research directions for future reforms. For policymakers, the review and summary of current reform research contain some of the problems and reform directions that most scholars believe need to be solved urgently, which can better clarify the goals of future policy revision and play a guiding role in the formulation of future reform policies. At the same time, the summary of some foreign experience learning research literature can see some feasible directions for deepening the reform of Chinese vocational education in the future.

Conclusion

The study systematically reviewed 61 pieces of literature related to the reform of vocational education in China, which were classified into 4 categories according to the object and research direction of the reform, respectively, and provided specific literature classification, review, and summary of the content of each section. At present, there are a series of distinguished problems in China’s vocational education, although there are laws and regulations to establish the identity of the type of education, but has not established a national policy framework for vocational education, teachers’ compensation is lower than that of normal education, therefore, its equal identity with the general education has not been widely recognized by the society, which leads to the structural imbalance in industrial and economic development and talent cultivation. The future development of vocational education in China should first establish a national vocational education policy framework, reform the examination system, and effectively implement its position as a type of vocational education from the secondary education stage, at the same time, improve the compensation of vocational education teachers, to change the public’s concept and optimize the structure of talent cultivation in response to the development of the industrial economy. Our research will help to provide future scholars with basic and more comprehensive theoretical references, to provide a theoretical overview of relevant studies on reform in this field, and to contribute to the reform and development of vocational education in China.

Acknowledgement

This paper results from an academic exercise for the EPPE6154 Economics of Social Policy course and EPPE6908 Academic Paper, funded by EP-2018-001 at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dexia Zhao

Dexia Zhao is a postgraduate student in FEP UKM, majoring in Human Resource Economics and Public Economics.

Doris Padmini Selvaratnam

Doris Padmini Selvaratnam’s research is related to social impact assessment cost of living study, socioeconomic profiling, indigenous community education, family financial planning, consumer, and entrepreneurship studies. The topics are related to community empowerment and development.

Appendix A

Table A1. The specific categorization of the literatures.

		Reform object of the study				The Direction of Reform
		Overall VER	Hierarchical VER	Sub-division of specializations/courses	Sub-region/ province	Integration of teaching and practice	Multi-skills	Teaching and Faculty	Policy reform
1.	Chen (2021)			+	–
2.	Cui (2019)			+	–			–
3.	Deng (2018)
4.	E T. (2018)	+				+			–
5.	E T. (2016)				+
6.	Fan (2023)		0			+			–
7.	Fang et al. (2019)			+				0	–
8.	Fu (2018)	–				+
9.	Guo (2021)				+				–
10.	Han (2020)				+
11.	Huang (2023)		+						–
12.	Hou (2016)				+
13.	Jia (2015)	–				+
14.	Li (2019)						+		+
15.	Li & Shi (2020)	+							+
16.	Li (2018)	–				+
17.	Li (2017)				+			–
18.	Lin (2020)			+
19.	Liu (2019)	+						–	0
20.	Liu (2020)			+	–
21.	Lu and Xu (2022)				+		+		–
22.	Luo (2023)		–			+
23.	Liao (2020)		+
24.	Nian (2020)		–		+				+
25.	Ning and Wei (2022)				–		+		0
26.	Pan (2016)				+
27.	Pan et al. (2016)			+
28.	Peng (2020)	+					+		0
29.	Qi (2022)			–			+
30.	Qi (2014)					+
31.	Qiu (2017)		+					0
32.	Ren (2020)	+							+
33.	Tang (2015)
34.	Tang (2015)				+			–
35.	Wang (2022)	+					+		0
36.	Wang (2019)		+
37.	Wang and Li (2021)	+					+
38.	Wang et al. (2020)	–				+
39.	Wei (2020)	+						+
40.	Wu and Bai (2015)		–		+
41.	Wu and Yu (2017)					+
42.	Wu and Zhu (2020)	+				+			+
43.	Wu (2016)				+
44.	Wu and Zhu (2023)		+						–
45.	Xin (2019)		–			+
46.	Xing and He (2020)	–				+			–
47.	Xiong (2022)		+						+
48.	Xiong (2014)	–				+		–
49.	Xu et al. (2021)				+				–
50.	Yao and Lei (2014)		+
51.	Yang (2017)	+				+			–
52.	Yin (2016)				+
53.	Yu (2016)	–				+			0
54.	Yu (2021)
55.	Zha and Li (2019)	+							+
56.	Zhan and Chen (2021)				+	–
57.	Zhao (2022)	–				+
58.	Zhao (2016)				+
59.	Zhang (2023)	+				+			–
60.	Zhu and Shen (2019)		–		+				+
61.	Zhou (2017)		+					0

Marginal notes: + = Primary, − = Secondary 0 = Partially involved. Source: Authors.