Premier Li highlights vocational education, craftsmanship

BEIJING - Premier Li Keqiang said greater emphasis should be placed on vocational education in a written instruction delivered to a symposium on vocational education held in Beijing on Friday.

Various sectors should work together to establish high-level vocational schools and ensure faculty have outstanding technical skills and craftsmanship, said Li when instructing the symposium.

Vocational education helps give full play to China's advantages in human resources, and will enhance the competitiveness of the real economy, Li said.

The premier said vocational education should be integrated with the innovation and entrepreneurship drive, industrial upgrading, job creation and poverty reduction.

Vice Premier Liu Yandong, at the symposium, called for vocational education to play a greater role in the decisive stage of building a moderately well-off society in all respects.

Liu suggested building junior vocational schools in poverty-stricken areas as young people in poor regions would gain from mastering a practical skill.