SOEs in Guangzhou initiate customized classes to help combat poverty in SW China’s Bijie

In an effort to help Bijie, southwest China’s Guizhou province, shake off poverty, 10 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) administered by the municipal government of Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong province, have opened customized classes in cooperation with vocational schools in Bijie, training over 1,000 students for the city.

In 2016, Guangzhou paired up with Bijie to help the latter fight poverty. At the beginning of the pairing assistance, Guangzhou Port Group (GZP), one of the Guangzhou-based SOEs tasked with the mission of assisting Bijie in getting rid of poverty, found through investigation that the lack of vocational education and skills was the major obstacle blocking the way of impoverished people in Bijie to a better life.

GZP runs a technical school that trains students for port industry. Graduates from the technical school have been well welcomed in the market thanks to the rapid growth of the industry.

To offer poor people in Bijie access to vocational skills that can help them secure jobs, the company decided to open a special class to train students for harbor machinery operation and maintenance jointly with Bijie Vocational and Technical College in Guizhou, aiming to cultivate skilled workers for GZP.

In September 2017, GZP signed cooperation agreement with Bijie Vocational and Technical College, and 43 people from impoverished families in Bijie became the first batch of students of the tailored class.

In order to train students in the class as highly-skilled professionals, the two sides adopted a “2+1” model for the special program. The model enables students to take basic courses in general knowledge, professional basic courses, and professional theory courses, and receive simple practical training in the college in Bijie for the first two years, and then take internships in GZP in the third year, during which students work to obtain their training certificate and can enjoy intern salary. After the internship, students can choose to work in the company.

In July this year, the first batch of graduates from the customized class for GZP all became regular employees of the company.

Qin Peng, one of the graduates, has become a gantry crane driver of GZP in Nansha Port, Guangzhou.

“Each of us got over 6,000 yuan ($916.2) on July 21, our first payday. I was so happy that I felt like crying. Finally I can make money on my own and ease the burdens on my family,” said Qin with happy tears in his eyes.

The 22-year-old young man sent home 4,000 yuan as soon as he got his first paycheck.

GZP is the epitome of the 10 SOEs opening customized classes in Bijie to help the city shake off poverty.

Under the support and guidance of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Guangzhou Municipal Government, Chinese automobile maker GAC Group and Bijie Vocational and Technical College have initiated a tailored class. The first two sessions of the training program have admitted 80 students, including 33 from registered poor families.

On Oct. 24, 28 students from the class arrived in Guangzhou to carry out their 8-month-long internships at the company.

Guangzhou Metro has opened two classes in Bijie Vocational and Technical College. By jointly designing teaching materials, building teaching team, conducting educational research, and constructing training bases, the two sides hope to train students as rail transit professionals for the company, and even cultivate talents for all metro companies across the country.

GRGUser, a member enterprise of Guangzhou Radio Group, has set up hospitality major and tourism management major with Bijie Vocational and Technical College. The customized program for GRGUser has been recruiting students every year since 2018.

Catering and tourism conglomerate Lingnan Group has opened two classes with Bijie Vocational and Technical College to train local students as Guangdong cuisine cooks. The program can train nearly 100 students for catering industry every year.

By jointly running a customized class training program with Bijie Vocational and Technical College, Guangzhou Restaurant, China’s time-honored brand, has realized its goal of “lifting a family out of poverty by training one person of the family in cooking skills”.

While many more such classes targeting poverty alleviation have been initiated in other vocational schools in Bijie, the number of customized classes jointly opened by SOEs in Guangzhou and Bijie Vocational and Technical College has reached 37, benefiting a total of 1,317 students.