A systematic literature review on the reform of vocational education in China

Abstract

In recent years, vocational education reform has become an issue of common concern for the government, academia, and the education sector, as the difficulty in finding employment for Chinese university students and the labor shortage of senior technical personnel continue to intensify. This study conducted a systematic review of the literature on vocational education reform in the past decade, analyzing 61 pieces of literature from two major aspects, namely reform research objects and reform research directions, during the period of 2014–2023. The results of the analyses show that the current major directions of vocational education reform are the combination of teaching and practice, multi-skilling, teacher enhancement, and policy reform. The main research objects include overall vocational education, hierarchical vocational education, professional and curricular reforms, and reform studies for different provinces and regions.