You cannot train tomorrow's workforce with yesterday's expertise. When a factory introduces a new production system, buying the equipment is only the beginning.
Workers must learn to operate it, adapt to new processes and solve problems when things go wrong. This also puts pressure on a less visible group: the teachers responsible for preparing the next generation of technicians.
China's industrial upgrading depends on a steady supply of skilled workers and the teachers who prepare them. As AI reshapes the job market and creates demand for new skills, vocational education must evolve. The question is whether its teachers can keep pace with the technologies they are expected to teach.
In advanced manufacturing, technical knowledge can quickly become outdated, and knowing a process is not the same as being able to teach it. An experienced engineer may master a production process but still struggle to design a lesson around it. Likewise, a graduate with strong academic credentials may understand theoretical concepts but lack hands-on experience on a factory floor. Vocational education needs teachers with a sound grounding in pedagogy, up-to-date technical knowledge and firsthand industry experience.
China refers to these professionals as "dual-qualified" vocational teachers. Strengthening China's capacity to train them, particularly at the doctoral level in fields with acute skills shortages, is an important part of preparing the workforce for industrial transformation.
The challenge begins with how these teachers are selected and trained. If training programs follow established academic disciplines without paying close attention to industrial developments, teachers may enter vocational colleges with impressive qualifications but limited understanding of the real-world challenges their students will face at work.
Closer cooperation between universities, vocational colleges and companies can address this mismatch. Universities can provide the theoretical and research foundations needed to turn technical knowledge into effective teaching.
Vocational colleges, meanwhile, offer the environments in which new teaching strategies can be tested. Together, they should design curricula and practical training and regularly review training goals as industry needs change.
Wang Weiyuan, president of Tianjin Vocational College of Mechanics and Electricity, is among the first doctoral students in education at Tianjin University of Technology and Education. He hopes his doctoral studies will help him apply vocational education theory to college management, improve teaching approaches and redesign curricula.
College leaders and experienced educators often understand the practical problems facing their institutions. Research training can help them investigate those problems systematically and develop effective solutions. The value of a doctorate, in this context, lies in applying research to practical problems.
Understanding how a machine works does not automatically equip someone to teach others to operate it safely and effectively.
Teachers need to understand the technology, the underlying principles and the difficulties learners may encounter. Training should combine AI applications in teaching, engineering practice and education theory, with joint supervision by university and industry mentors.
Tianjin University of Technology and Education has developed a doctoral training model that combines education and engineering. The aim is to give future educators experience in both the academic study of vocational education and the practical settings where technical skills are applied.
Li Yunmei, a 2019 doctoral graduate of the university's dual-qualified teacher program and now president of Tianjin Light Industry Vocational Technical College, benefited from such training. During her studies, cooperation among academic departments gave her opportunities to conduct research, participate in projects and undertake technical training with enterprises.
Teachers need regular opportunities to learn from enterprises, observe evolving production processes and bring that experience back to their students.
Companies, in turn, can help educators understand which skills are gaining importance and where existing training falls short.
Building a system that supports this exchange requires sustained cooperation. Government agencies can provide policy direction and resources; universities can lead academic training; vocational colleges can offer teaching and research settings; and enterprises can contribute technical expertise and practical experience.
Quality assurance should cover selection, training and assessment, with practical teaching and engineering achievements valued more than publication counts. Assessment should reflect teachers' abilities to translate technical knowledge into instruction and help students acquire useful occupational skills.
China's experience also has implications for international cooperation. Through initiatives such as Luban Workshops, it has expanded vocational education partnerships globally. Teacher development could play a more prominent role in these collaborations, allowing educators to exchange approaches to technical training and adapt them to local industries and labor markets.
These partnerships should also offer doctoral training for dual-qualified vocational teachers from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.
The needs of partner countries differ, so effective cooperation should be based on practical exchange rather than a one-size-fits-all model.
As AI and automation transform the skills required in manufacturing, vocational education must keep pace with changes in the workplace. New equipment and revised courses will have limited value if teachers lack the knowledge and experience to explain and apply the technology.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), China is expected to build a stronger system for training dual-qualified teachers to support industrial upgrading.
The goal is to ensure that what students learn in vocational colleges remains relevant to the work they will undertake after graduation. In a dynamic industrial economy, those who teach technical skills must also have opportunities to keep learning.
The author is the Party secretary and president of Tianjin University of Technology and Education.
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
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