“A new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation is reshaping the materials, methods, forms and relations of labor, prompting higher demands for the structure, capabilities, and overall quality of the workforce,” said Meng Zhenping, chairman of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd, during a group discussion as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Meng suggested improving the policy package, deepening cooperation and enhancing the protection of the rights and interests of workers to cultivate a new type of workforce for the digital era, thereby injecting impetus into the high-quality economic and social development.
New quality productive forces refer to advanced productivity driven by innovation, breaking away from traditional models of economic growth and pathways of productivity development, and characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality. People are the most active, dynamic and decisive factors in productivity. Fostering a new type of workforce that matches the needs of such productivity, featuring a vast knowledge reserve, sharp skills, great innovation capability and lofty pursuit, is crucial for China to enhance core competitiveness and secure the initiative in development.
Therefore, Meng suggested improving corresponding policies for cultivating a new type of workforce and introducing guidelines at the national level to incorporate this initiative into development plans at all levels and into special plans, thereby achieving the targeted allocation of resources. He stressed improving the standards, evaluation rules and certification systems of vocational skills and optimizing the allocation of educational and technological resources and funds to concentrate efforts on cultivating professionals in major fields, such as advanced manufacturing, digital economy and clean energy.
Enterprises play the principal role in technological innovation. They bring together advantageous resources such as technology, data, and platforms, along with a wealth of application scenarios, making them key arenas for cultivating a new type of workforce.
Meng suggested leveraging these advantages of enterprises to enhance workers’ core capabilities through major engineering projects and platforms. He called for aligning education with industrial needs and improving the collaboration between educational institutions and enterprises to promote the coordinated development of professionals, technologies and industries.
(Executive editor: Yuan Ting)
