"This requires the authorities to change their outdated thinking and let each school or college play its role," Ding said.

"Meanwhile, graduates from vocational training schools and those from colleges should be given the same opportunity for career promotion," Ding added.

Lu with the Ministry of Education said that in China, vocational education has been focused on skill training, but in the future, the country will face a growing demand for people with expertise. This means skilled workers need to better equip themselves with academic knowledge.

Under a pilot program, 14 million students entered higher education institutes for technically focused vocational studies in 2013.

"In Shanghai, about 15 percent of high school graduates entered higher vocational education in 2013. I am confident of their future job prospects," Tang said.

The ministry will call on about 600 local universities, which account for 50 percent of the total in China, to transfer resources from academic education to applied technology and vocational education, according to Lu.

This means their education should be designed according to the requirements of specific jobs, and 150 universities have applied to take part in the new reform, she said.

Lu also urged the acceleration of the building of a modern vocational education system. "A modern system will nurture hundreds of millions of engineers, high-level technical workers and highly skilled laborers for China, which will help boost competitiveness for 'Made in China' products," Lu said.

China plans to offer "world-class" modern vocational education nationwide by 2020 to upgrade economic structure as well as improve the quality of its labor force and increase employment.

Measures to strengthen vocational education include giving vocational schools more independence and developing a talent cultivation mechanism under which schools and the enterprises jointly recruit and teach students.

The State Council, China's cabinet, also encouraged mixed ownership of schools.

Int'l cooperation

Lu also called for strengthened international cooperation. "We will promote exchange between Chinese vocational schools and community colleges in the United States, and conduct cooperation with the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations."

China will also continue to carry out cooperation programs with Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, and advance communication and cooperation with Australia, Africa and South America, according to Lu.

Xiang Yongkang was delighted to discover during a tour of Indonesia that local universities have great interest in cooperating with his school, Guizhou Electrical Vocational and Technical College.

The college, which is in southwest China's Guizhou Province and affiliated to the China Southern Power Grid, has already forged solid partnerships in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Cambodia and Viet Nam.

"Cooperation in vocational education between China and Southeast Asian nations is new, but there is great potential," said Xiang, president of the college.

With high demand for skilled labor in various industries, vocational education has become a potential focal point for cooperation between China and Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asian countries have demonstrated dynamic economic growth, and their governments are encountering increasing demands for skilled labor to further develop industries and keep the trend going. With similar development problems and intensified cooperation, these countries have set their sights on China for closer links in vocational education.

"We can see the interest in cooperation from vocational education institutions in the region, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia," Xiang said. "Indonesian enterprises are eager to hire more skilled workers, especially power companies, which offer a foundation to develop other industries."

Indonesia has attached great importance to developing its industries and economy. In an effort to ensure economic sustainability, the government has implemented its largest economic plan to date—MP3EI—to ease Indonesia's transition into an industrialized economy, expand its domestic economy and move up the global value chain.

Institutions in Southeast Asia are more likely to cooperate with Chinese colleges and universities, compared with Western education institutions, as Western technology and know-how are too advanced for the region, Xiang said.

"During cooperation with China in various industries, Southeast Asian countries find that the technologies offered by Chinese vocational education institutions are more suitable for their development and the cost of cooperation is lower," he said.

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