Expert Workshop on the Adaptation of ILO Quality Apprenticeship Guide for Practitioners successfully held in Tianjin

On 22 June, the ILO project ‘Quality Apprenticeship and Lifelong Learning in China’ successfully organized Expert Workshop on the Adaptation of ILO Quality Apprenticeship Guide for Practitioners (the Guide) in Tianjin. Around 20 national experts in vocational training and apprenticeship participated in the workshop to present adaptation frameworks and have discussions on the further development of the adaptation, in order to make the Guide more applicable based on the current implementation of China New Enterprise-based Apprenticeship Program

Press release | 28 June 2021
QA Expert Workshop, 22 June 2021 in Tianjin, China
On June 22, ILO and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) successfully held Expert Workshop on the Adaptation of ILO Quality Apprenticeship Guide for Practitioners in Tianjin. Around 20 national experts in vocational training and apprenticeship from enterprises, TVET institutions and governmental departments participated in the workshop. In addition to experts who are adapting the Guide, experts who are involved in the review of national best practices in China New Enterprise-based Apprenticeship Program organized by MOHRSS provided their insights on the adaptation.

The adaptation of ILO tools on quality apprenticeship and skills development serves as a major component of Quality Apprenticeship and Lifelong Learning in China project. ILO Toolkit for Quality Apprenticeships Volume 2: Guide for Practitioners (the Guide hereinafter), which was released in July 2020, has already been translated into Chinese in March 2021. It is important to adapt it to the national context as a useful tool to shed light on how to implement high-quality apprenticeship in a practical way in China. Therefore, this expert workshop gathered national experts who specialize in apprenticeship and stimulated lively discussions on how to combine global experience with Chinese practices into the Guide.

In the opening remarks, Deputy Director of ILO CO-Beijing Mr. Xiaochu DAI stressed that the connotation of apprenticeship has expanded and deepened. Therefore, the adaptation of the Guide needs to be an integration of Chinese features and Global essentials, following 3 key principles: be practical, be innovative and be proactive.

6 experts presented their preliminary thoughts on how to adapt 6 main chapters of the Guide ‘The quality apprenticeship training life cycle’, ‘Developing quality apprenticeship programmes’, ‘Preparing quality training places’, ‘Organizing apprenticeship training’, ‘Post-training transitions and evaluation’ and ‘Innovations and strategies in apprenticeships’. After each presentation, there was a discussion among all experts to provide comments and suggestions. In addition, Professor Mr. Yuan ZHANG elaborated the impact of digitalization and automation on the labour market and the necessity of digital skill development in China. He further introduced the newly-promulgated ‘Working Plan of National Digital Skill Development’ by MOHRSS and developing training tools on digital skills. He suggested to add new chapters regarding digital skills, core skills and craftsmanship spirit in the adaptation. During the workshop, it is highlighted that more Chinese good practices need to be added to complement the existing global cases, with sectors and regions into consideration. Also, terms need to be adapted to be congruent with the national context. Experts feel necessary to maintain essential global tools in the Guide to catalyse national innovative measures and long-term institutional improvement in quality apprenticeship.

Following the workshop, experts responsible for the chapter adaptation will update their adaption frameworks based on what has been discussed and adapt contents of the Guide accordingly. Essential global tools in the Guide will be organized and translated into Chinese as an apprenticeship kit.