At a national commendation conference on poverty alleviation, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that a series of coordinated measures should made to achieve sustained poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. As professionals working at the forefront of the battle against poverty, we came to see that many people from rural areas were not equipped with sufficient skills to make a decent living, and this posed a tremendous obstacle for the progress of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

Promoting vocational education is an important means to achieving poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Facts show that rural areas with high-quality vocational education and solid school-industry partnership will see better development. And young people who received vocational education and found a good job will help to lift their whole family out of poverty.

I propose that a national secondary vocational education project for poverty alleviation should be put into place across the country as soon as possible. Potential young workers who haven’t completed their studies should be offered more opportunities to enter secondary vocational schools. More vocational education training should be provided for the current labor force. A cooperation scheme should be launched to promote synergy among secondary vocational education institutions in the developed eastern and less-developed western parts of China. Especially in remote areas such as Heilongjiang Province, efforts should be made as soon as possible to build partnerships with vocational education institutions from developed areas, to produce a bigger skilled workforce for local economies.