Vocational education: a poor second choice? A comparison of the labour market outcomes of academic and vocational graduates in China

ABSTRACT

In the Reform Era, the Chinese Government has placed great emphasis on the role of education in ensuring the economic success of individuals and of the country as a whole. While vocational and academic post-secondary qualifications are officially set at the same level, vocational education is positioned at the bottom of the educational hierarchy and suffers considerable societal prejudice. Drawing on the most recent nationwide-representative data, we investigate the labour market positioning of graduates from the two types of education in terms of their income, occupation, and level of employment precariousness. The results suggest that: (1) vocational graduates earn less than academic graduates; (2) the type of post-secondary education is significantly correlated with the likelihood of obtaining white-collar high-skilled positions; and (3) vocational graduates face greater precariousness in their jobs than academic graduates do. This study also reveals that the hierarchically stratified post-secondary system may be a source of economic inequality in the Chinese Reform Era. Moreover, it demonstrates that the visible hand of the state seems to further facilitate the reproduction of current forms of inequality that leave an increasing number of graduates in marginalised labour market positions.

KEYWORDS:

• Labour market outcomes
• academic and vocational post-secondary education
• precariousness
• China
• the Reform Era

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. It is argued that China is facing a potential growth of technological unemployment and job polarisation in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th IR) (Li et al., 2017). In 2017, the 19th National Congress of China acknowledged the consequences of the 4th IR and pointed out the need to ‘promote the deep integration of AI and economy’ and ‘cultivate a large number of internationally competitive talents’ (State Council, 2017).

2. ‘Iron rice bowl’ is a term used to refer to the job assignment system that comes with the lifetime guarantee of steady salaries and the benefits of a socialist welfare package (Hoffman, 2006, p. 551).

3. Bianzhi is the authorised number of personnel (the number of established posts) in a party or government administrative organ (jiguan), a service organisation (shiye danwei) or a working unit (qiye; Brødsgaard, 2002). By controlling bianzhi, the state could exercise control over the entire administrative apparatus from central to local levels. The benefit of having a bianzhi is that employees could enjoy the ‘iron rice bowl’ lifelong job security, and salaries and welfares are allocated by the government.

4. At the end of 2017, the State Council published its Plans on Deepening the Integration of Industry and Vocational Education (State Council, 2017). In 2018, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and four other major governmental departments were asked by the State Council to enact The Guidelines on Promoting the Cooperation of Vocational School and Enterprise, with the aim of making industry and business the driver of vocational education and improving students’ skills and capacities (State Council, 2018). The published Plans and the Guidelines aimed to develop a highly skilled workforce by establishing an industry-driven VET sector.

5. The study does not include data from Hong Kong SAR, Macao, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia or Hainan.

6. The National College Entrance Exam (CEE) was restored in 1977 after a gap of more than a decade, during which time the country experienced the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

7. Dispatch work is a common form of precarious work emerging in the Reform Era. It involves shorter contracts and diminished worker power, as the legal employer of dispatched workers is an employment agency, rather than the company where they work (Swider, 2017).

8. Permanent/secure full-time jobs are equivalent to the ‘iron rice bowl’ jobs of the Socialist Era. They usually involve holding a bianzhi. As mentioned in the previous section, a bianzhi is a guarantee from the state of a worker’s livelihood over the course of their lifetime (Brødsgaard, 2002).

9. In 2019, the Chinese State Council published the Implementation Plan on National Vocational Education Reform, which announced that 100 billion RMB was to be invested in vocational education to enable 15 million people to upgrade their skills (State Council, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geng Wang

Geng Wang currently works as an associate researcher at School of Education, Tianjin University, China. She holds a PhD (University of Glasgow) in education. Her research interests revolve around education and work transitions through the lifecourse, particularly in relation to vocational education and training for young people, what influences transitions and their impact on learning and development.

Zhonghan Wang

Zhonghan Wang is a PhD candidate at School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, China. His current research focuses on precarious work, labour market and social policy.