Xia Min is excited to see on the news that an occupation called parenting instructor might soon gain official recognition from China's human resources authority. As a college student majoring in education, she first became familiar with the profession a year ago through a television drama and has grown more interested in it ever since.

"Parents have great expectations for their children and are under pressure to nurture them, but sometimes they may become so anxious that they overparent, passing on their stress to the children and harming family harmony," Xia told Beijing Review. "I would like to be the person who helps parents adopt effective parenting styles and raise their kids in a healthy way."

The 21-year-old is currently pursuing further education in her hometown of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, while learning more about the newly recognized occupation, which is among the 18 new professions the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) announced it was considering adding to the country's list of professions.

"New occupations reflect the industries and fields that are in urgent need of development under the changing internal and external environment of the country. They also demonstrate that economic transformation and upgrading are happening," Zhang Chenggang, a job market researcher with the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, told Beijing Review.

Emerging options

The new professions, unveiled in June to solicit public feedback for their upcoming certification, fall into three fields: digital and hi-tech fields such as robotics engineering technicians, data security engineers and digital solution designers; the service industry, including parenting instructors; energy and environmental protection, like carbon sequestration assessors, and energy efficiency and carbon-neutral building consultants, according to a statement published on the MHRSS's website. Some of these occupations reflect the country's digitalization plus carbon peaking and neutralization trends, the statement read.

China's occupational classification has been constantly updated. In 1999, the country published its first occupational classification reference book, which included over 1,800 occupations. In 2010, the government began revising the book by adding new occupations, and published the latest edition in 2015. From 2019 to 2021, 55 new occupations were included on the list.

"Many new occupations are attractive to university graduates and become new choices for their future career," said Li Chang'an, a professor at the School of Public Administration at the University of International Business and Economics, who focuses on labor and educational economics. He said some of the new occupations are upgrades of the traditional ones, like express delivery service people, while others are brand new ones born with new business forms such as blockchain engineering technicians and online marketers.

Kuang Xianming, Director of the Economic Research Center at the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, believes the new and the traditional are not contradictory; rather, the former is a supplement to the latter. "For example, an agricultural manager [someone who assumes the managerial role in an agricultural cooperative, oversees agricultural production, offers technical support or markets its products] facilitates the introduction of modern management concepts into the development of traditional agriculture, accelerating rural development," Kuang said. "New occupations emerging today may become the norm tomorrow."

Sun Jianqin is an agricultural manager in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. In 2019, with the ambition to help all fellow villagers increase their incomes, the farmer applied to attend lectures at the Suzhou Polytechnic Institute of Agriculture in Jiangsu to study management, marketing, finance, policies and regulations—all that are required to be a professional consultant and manager for farmers.

During his daily work, Sun solves a wide range of problems for other villagers while also running his own family farm. Once, several of them asked why the quality peaches they grew could not be sold at a decent price. Sun remembered from his studies that during peach season, fierce market competition made it difficult to sell good peaches at a good price.

He then came up with the idea of establishing a brand and telling a unique story so that more customers would come to know about their peaches. He also led farmers to participate in national and regional peach competitions in which they won several awards.

According to an MHRSS report released last year, total demand for agricultural managers in China, which has a rural population of around 500 million, will reach about 1.5 million people between 2021 and 2025.

Alongside the occupations that receive official verification, there are others that gain public attention. For example, the story of a watermelon inspector recently went viral online. Sun Hongkai from Xiayi County in Henan Province, a nationally renowned watermelon production area, could tell the quality of a melon in three seconds by holding and tapping it. He could classify over 100 tons in one 10-hour workday. During summer he was able to earn over 30,000 yuan ($4,400) a month.

Professional best men and bridesmaids have also drawn public attention. Couples who have a hard time finding friends that live in the same city or who can travel to their wedding can now hire a best man or maid of honor, or even a whole team of groomsmen and bridesmaids, to fill the role on their special day. As demand increases, professional service companies are also emerging. The demand is expected to grow by 25 to 30 percent annually nationwide, according to Cao Zhonghua, head of Shanghai Wedding Trade Association.

Call for standards

After soliciting opinions from the public, the ministry will release the finalized list of new occupations. It will then work with other departments to formulate new vocational standards and guide training institutions to carry out training in accordance with these standards, the statement said.

"I do hope there will be more detailed standards for us to better understand how to prepare to be parenting instructors. For now, there are some educational institutions in the market that allege they provide relevant consulting services, but I'm afraid they don't have the qualifications for such a new occupation," Xia said, adding that there should also be an official platform for parents to learn more about the job and hire the right professionals.

Xia is considering taking an exam to become certified as a parenting instructor, but soon discovered there are more than a dozen certifications on offer, some of which claim to be government-run, while in fact being operated by high-priced training companies. Such certificates are not recognized by the industry and many people like Xia can't be sure which are or will be.

Xiong Bingqi, an educationalist and head of Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, told Xiaoxiang Morning Post that certification for new occupations needs government supervision and regulation, rather than "letting it become a hotbed for scams."

(Print Edition: Promising Professions)

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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