The basic task for vocational and technical education is to cultivate talents of various levels, who are in urgent demand for the national economic development. To cater to the need of economic construction, early in the 1950s, China established and developed over 1,000 secondary vocational and technical schools. By 1965, students in secondary vocational schools, vocational high schools, and technical schools totaled 1.422 million, which laid the foundation for modern vocational technical education. After 1980, secondary vocational education developed rapidly, and the irrational structure of secondary education was gradually being adjusted. For three consecutive years since 1996, students in secondary schools reached over 10 million annually. According to statistics, in 1998, the advanced secondary vocational schools of various types in the country amounted to 17,106, with the students totaling 11.26 million.

1. Contribution to Improvement of the Structure of Secondary Education

For a long period of time, the structure of secondary education in China remained irrational, and vocational and technical education was weak. The situation began to change to a certain extent after 1980, but still could not meet the needs of social development. In the 1980s, about 6 million primary students, 6 million junior middle school students and over 1.8 million senior middle school students graduated each year. The students graduating from senior middle school went to work without any professional training, which led to the low quality of China's workforce, an impediment to the economic development and the effort to improve efficiency. To solve the problem, since the mid-1980s, the Chinese Government has introduced many measures to develop vocational education. Potential was tapped in the existing secondary vocational and technical schools by enrolling more students, while a group of senior middle schools were changed to be vocational high schools or opened vocational training courses. By and by, running vocational and technical schools by the whole of society has gradually taken shape.

The development of vocational and technical education is based on overall planning of local governments so as to serve economic construction. In cities, vocational and technical education should fit in with the need of developing high and new technology and improving enterprise management. It should in particular meet the need of development of tertiary industry, providing talents for different sectors and industries.

In rural areas, vocational and technical education should cater to the development of agriculture, helping farmers to get rich in a short period. Plans for adjusting the secondary education structure and developing vocational and technical education should be made in accordance with actual conditions and the prospects for local economic and social development. The development scale, structure and pattern of secondary education should be made in conformity with practical conditions and local regulations and detailed policies worked out in line with practical needs to improve the secondary education structure.

The structure of secondary education has now become rational through various endeavors. In 1980, the students of secondary vocational and technical schools made up only 18.92 percent of the total senior middle school students. In 1990, it increased to 46 percent and 55 percent in 1998. Thus, the new pattern of ordinary education going along with vocational and technical education has been basically formed.

2. Vocational and Technical Education in Rural Areas

Since China began to carry out the policy of reform and opening to the outside world, the vocational and technical education has attracted wide attention in the country. In 1997, China had 441,100 technical schools for farmers, which trained 80.2138 million farmers.

The vocational and technical schools in rural areas maintained the principle of working in the interests of local economic and social development and helping farmers to get rich. The schools set their courses by fully considering local economic and social development. For example, most of the courses are related to plantation, aquatic, animal husbandry and the tertiary industries. The schools usually train their students for two to three years. At the same time, they also run short-term training classes for those who are returned junior or senior middle school graduates. Some rural schools of basic education have also opened vocational and technical training courses. In these schools, students stay in school for one more year for vocational and technical training after completing their regular school year.

3. Vocational and Technical Education in Urban Areas

With the overall planning and arrangement of governments at all levels, a new form of running school has appeared in cities, which features schools jointly run by industries, enterprises, institutions and other social organizations. The joint efforts by the education authorities, schools, enterprises and institutions in running school enable the school to easily solve the problems relating to the teachers teaching special technical courses, special facilities, experimental sites and necessary capital. At the same time, it combines the cultivation of talents with their distribution, which also promotes the reform of both the vocational and technical education system and the personnel system.

In developing the vocational and technical education, a principle is followed which emphasizes "training coming in first, and employment second." The enterprises, institutions, and other units choose the excellent students in various specialties from the vocational and technical schools, and they will not recruit employees from other channels of the society before the qualified graduates of the vocational and technical schools are fully employed. Many vocational and technical schools have readjusted their school patterns and curriculum according to the demand/supply trend in the labor market. The qualification of their graduates for a kind of professionals is becoming the goal and standard that these schools are striving for.

The past 50 years have seen a big progress made in developing the vocational and technical education in China. Yet, with the adjustment of the economic, technical and urban/rural structures, new requirements in the structure and scale of talents are appearing. In the Program on Vitalizing the Education Towards the 21st Century, the Chinese government stressed the positive development of vocational and technical education and the adult education, pointing out that they should develop side by side with the primary, secondary and higher learning education.