On October 12, the Changsha Aeronautical Vocational and Technical College and the Hunan Mechanical & Electrical Polytechnic were officially inaugurated as branches of the Hunan Institute of Craftsman. The Hunan Institute of Craftsman now has 50 branches, forming an industrial worker skills training network aligned with the province's key industrial chains. The annual training capacity exceeds 700,000 person-times.

Industrial upgrading is built on talent. Previously, Hunan's industrial talent faced structural contradictions: the proportion of industrial workers without technical grades once reached 51.6%, and more than half of employed workers had not obtained vocational skill grade certification. Due to the lack of systematic channels for skill development, the training of high-level craftsmen is difficult to meet industrial demands. Therefore, the Hunan Federation of Trade Unions has continuously advanced the construction of an industrial worker skills training network. The Hunan Institute of Craftsman was inaugurated in May 2024, adopting a "headquarters + branches" model. The headquarters coordinates the formulation of construction standards, instructor resource databases, and public service platforms. Each branch follows the principle of "one branch, one track," precisely aligning with local key industrial chains for targeted training.

At present, this craftsmen cultivation and training network has already produced tangible results. The SANY Group Branch highlights construction machinery, with practical training projects drawn from real production tasks, carrying out practical implementations. The Xiangtan Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd. Branch delves deeply into the steel and metallurgy industry, moving classrooms into workshops and selecting front-line technical backbone staff to instruct trainees. The Hunan Railway Professional Technology College Branch targets the rail transit industry, with 1,360 graduates of the Grade 2025 employed by leading rail transit enterprises and a skill certification rate of 92%.

The training service network has been also extending to broader groups. This year, Changsha, relying on the craftsman branches, opened 26 free skills training classes under the "one household, one industrial worker" training project. It trained more than 1,000 people, focusing on serving workers transferred to new posts or awaiting reassignment, migrant workers, and family members of struggling workers. The Shaoyang branch opened welding training classes, where trainees can get employed in SANY Group upon graduation, achieving "immediate employment after graduation."

A spokesperson of the Hunan Federation of Trade Unions noted that each step up in skill grade brings a simultaneous increase in remuneration. The idea of "success through skills, higher pay for higher skills" is becoming a consensus among Hunan's industrial workers. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), the Hunan Federation of Trade Unions will closely follow the requirements of modern industrial system construction, planning to add 10 provincial-level branches of the Hunan Institute of Craftsman, and simultaneously promoting the standardized construction of branches in Hunan's 13 cities and one autonomous prefecture. It will promote a shift in the development of the Hunan Institute of Craftsman from "widespread construction" to "in-depth utilization," continuing to pave the way for industrial workers to develop their skills and achieve professional success.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn. 

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn