By Peng Yanmin & Zhou Lingling, Research Team on “The Innovation-Oriented Development of China’s Rural Governance in the New Era,” Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No.120, 2019 (Total 5620) 2019-7-24

Abstract: The revitalization of rural areas largely depend on skilled personnel. But facts show that grass-roots villages find it difficult to attract agricultural technicians and some of those already working in the villages want to leave rural areas and move to cities, and some are getting old and still some have limited technology skills. In order to change the picture, agricultural technology services need to be improved and the system for training agricultural technicians needs to be fleshed out. Since the inspection of General Secretary Xi Jinping in Xiangxi prefecture of Hunan province, the local government has, by following Xi Jinping’s instructions, in the past few years cultivated an innovation-oriented mechanism for the training of agricultural technicians. According to the overall staffing plan, the local government and local universities have made joint efforts to enroll students and train them to become agricultural technicians. After graduation, these students will go back to their hometowns and work there for local villages as designated. Through promoting vocational education, the local government has boosted rural revitalization and developed a new way for poverty alleviation featured by the close connection between vocational education, targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. These measures are reinforced and interrelated with each other. The experience gained by Xiangxi prefecture makes good reference to other parts of China. To cope with problems such as declining enrolment quotas for targeted admission, inappropriate joint management mechanism for school running and professional training and difficulty for students to get jobs after graduation due to low professional identity, the paper proposes to optimize approaches of selection and admission of students, strengthen joint educational management between schools and local government departments, enhance the pooling of educational resources and enrich measures for designated employment.

Key words: rural revitalization, agricultural technicians, agricultural technicians trained for tailored grass-roots posts, Xiangxi prefecture