The training model of vocational undergraduate education is also a topic of interest for candidates. Based on the vocational education and industry integration training model, universities and enterprises jointly develop four-year undergraduate or integrated training talent development plans. The high-level technical and skilled personnel trained by vocational undergraduate education have broader and deeper theoretical knowledge than those trained at higher vocational colleges. They also have better professional ethics, craftsmanship spirit, innovative spirit, and the ability to solve more complex problems and sustainable development capabilities.The training model of vocational undergraduate education is also a topic of interest for candidates. Based on the vocational education and industry integration training model, universities and enterprises jointly develop four-year undergraduate or integrated training talent development plans. The high-level technical and skilled personnel trained by vocational undergraduate education have broader and deeper theoretical knowledge than those trained at higher vocational colleges. They also have better professional ethics, craftsmanship spirit, innovative spirit, and the ability to solve more complex problems and sustainable development capabilities.
At the same time, a number of vocational undergraduate universities are exploring a series of training models with government, industry, enterprises, and schools such as the establishment of municipal industrial and vocational education alliances, industry-based vocational education integration communities, and vocational education groups. These organizations have teaching, teacher development, resource library construction, and vocational training as their main functions. For example, the Hainan Science and Technology Vocational University has gathered and integrated industry and other local colleges and enterprise resources to form the "Hainan Province Information Vocational Education Group"; Nanjing Industrial Technical University has coordinated resources to form the "National Mechanical Industry High-end CNC Equipment Vocational Education Integration Community" and the "Nanjing Cross-Border E-commerce Municipal Industrial and Vocational Education Alliance," further promoting the deepening of school-enterprise cooperation and forming a new industrial and vocational education integration model for vocational undergraduate education.
There is also a group of characteristic specialized professional groups for vocational bachelor's degree programs that collaborate with corresponding industries and enterprises to jointly establish industry-specific academies. On the platform of industrial and educational integration, they carry out unique educational models such as "on-site engineer classes," high-level modern apprenticeship, and "integration of job, curriculum, competitions, certificates, and innovation" to promote precise alignment between vocational education and industrial talent needs. The vocational bachelor's degree programs determine their talent development goals based on the school's development orientation and the development of the industry. They construct their professional curriculum systems based on the scale or specialized and innovative enterprises' job (cluster) requirements , with a focus on professional capabilities and activities as the unit to organize courses, and systematically designing course teaching projects. At the same time, vocational bachelor's degree universities also integrate advanced elements of the industry into their teaching content to highlight the "skill-combination type" and "technological innovation" of talent cultivation. Furthermore, vocational bachelor's degree universities work with enterprises to jointly define course content and internship standards, striving to jointly build professional teaching resource libraries and develop a set of new loose-leaf textbooks. They also improve the process-oriented and comprehensive evaluation methods to meet the diverse needs of talent growth.
At present, this training model has shown initial results, with students generally possessing strong practical skills and innovative awareness. Some students at vocational bachelor's degree schools have achieved more outstanding results in various skill competitions, innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, and subject competitions - according to the "National List of College Student Competitions (2019-2023) (Vocational Education)" released by the Chinese Association of Higher Education in 2024, five vocational bachelor's degree universities ranked among the top ten.
The employment of students is an important reference for evaluating the quality of vocational bachelor's degree education. Based on the employment of vocational bachelor's degree universities in recent years, graduates have high employment quality and obvious employment advantages. In June 2022, 9220 graduates from the first batch of vocational bachelor's degree universities were awarded Bachelor of Vocational Science degrees, with an average employment rate of 87.07%, 4.5 percentage points higher than the national average for bachelor's degree universities. For example, the career expectations, professional relevance, fulfillment rate, and monthly income of the 2023 graduating bachelor's degree students of Nanjing Industrial Polytechnic University are all higher than those of their associate degree graduates.
It should be noted that vocational bachelor's degree education is still a new thing and is in the pilot and exploration stage. The number of its graduates is relatively small, and their career development period is not long. In the future, it is still necessary to establish a sound mechanism for employment, cultivation, and admissions to promote the high-quality employment of vocational bachelor's degree school graduates. This requires strengthening supply-demand matching from the source, optimizing the setting of majors and talent training plans.
