People's Daily:

Henan is a populous province with rich human resources. Recently, it has implemented a vocational certification and skills enhancement initiative. Could you provide an update on its progress and discuss the next steps for its expansion? Thank you.

Wang Kai:

I'd like to ask Mr. Sun Shougang, our executive vice governor, to answer this.

Sun Shougang:

I'd like to thank People's Daily for its long-standing interest in and support for Henan's development. As the saying goes, "A skill in hand is a passport to the world." Henan's rich human resources are its most prominent advantage and the source of its vitality. In 2021, we introduced a vocational certification and skills enhancement initiative, aiming to enhance our workforce's vocational competence and professional skills through vocational training, evaluation, and certification and to transform our population dividends into talent dividends.

First, the skilled workforce is rapidly expanding. We have improved the evaluation system and conducted large-scale skills training covering the entire labor cycle and all types of occupations for workers. Over the past three years, we have trained 13.43 million people. The province now has 18.17 million skilled workers, including 5.5 million high-skilled professionals. Both of these indicators rank among the top in the country, with the number of newly added skilled workers and high-skilled professionals ranking first nationwide.

Second, skills brands continue to shine. We are guiding various regions to build one human resources brand for each county, achieving standardized training, large-scale output, and comprehensive services. Over the past three years, we have delivered more than 13 million skilled workers. Time-honored human resources brands, such as "Civil Engineering and Architecture of Linzhou" and "Waterproofing Skills of Pingyu," and in recent years, we have also cultivated new human resources brands such as "Digital Craftsmen" and "Henan Agricultural Technicians."

Third, skills competitions are widely held. We benchmark against the WorldSkills Competition and the national vocational skills competition, hosting 100 vocational competitions and 1,000 event sessions annually, enabling tens of thousands of participants to obtain skill certificates. We successfully held two provincial competitions and won the right to host the third national competition in 2025, greatly inspiring enthusiasm for skill training and competitions across various job positions.

Fourth, skilled workers are gradually becoming high-quality technical professionals. Here, I will give you two examples. The first example is students majoring in Electron Microscopy from Henan Chemical Technician College, who have secured jobs at research institutes of top universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. The second example is Jiang Yuhe, a girl from Henan born after 2000. She dropped out of school to work, but, after systematic training, won the championship at the WorldSkills Competition. She is now a senior lecturer at a technical school. Her remarkable life transformation is inspiring more and more young people to develop their skills and contribute to the country. There are many examples like Jiang Yuhe in Henan.

We will continue to make dedicated efforts, focusing on cultivating new quality productive forces and modern industrial systems, optimizing the structure, and improving quality. This will enable more Henan craftspeople to show their skills across various industries and more Henan young people to develop their talents and realize their dreams. Thank you.