Alternative gaokao attracting interest in vocational colleges

While 9.39 million Chinese high school students took the college entry exam on Saturday, some stayed away.

These students are opting for a pilot program that allows them to take independent entrance exams for vocational schools.

Currently both applicants for universities and vocational colleges take the same exam on June 7 and 8 every year.

This year, students vied for 6.98 million vacancies at universities and colleges, 3.35 million of which are for vocational colleges. These institutions admit students from high schools and vocational schools and offer two or three years of further vocational education.

A number of vocational colleges have been allowed to host their own entrance exams, the first pilot program to streamline vocational education.

Lao Hansheng, president of Guangdong Engineering Polytechnic, said the national exam is not an efficient way to admit students to vocational colleges.

"The national exam tests math, writing, reading and other academic skills. Vocational colleges have lower requirements in this respect but high-skill requirements based on their choice of course," Lao said.

Independent entry exams designed by colleges include specific skills tests. At Guangdong Engineering Polytechnic, tests are related to construction engineering.

"We want students who are interested in our courses and are talented, not those who simply score low on the national exam," he said.

Since the pilot program began in 2006, about 500 vocational colleges, 40 percent of the total, have joined. About one-third of the students at vocational colleges were enrolled after taking an independent entry exam in 2012.

Huang Mengfei, a first-year student at the Guangdong Engineering Polytechnic, was one of 40,000 vocational college students in Guangdong who bypassed the 2013 national college entry exam.

Compared with his high school classmates, Huang had to plan his career early.

"I have to be really sure of my choice," Huang said. "I have to decide what kind of job I would like to do now, but my classmates can wait till they graduate from college or even later."

He wants to be a quantity surveyor, which deals with contracts and costs in the construction industry. He will study at a college for two years and spend his third year in an internship at a construction company.

"I am quite confident that I can find a good job. Graduates in my major are popular," Huang said.

The Ministry of Education is considering offering two kinds of national entry exams. Lu Xin, vice-minister of education, said in March that the entry exam for applicants who are interested in vocational education will include tests on academic knowledge and professional skills, while the entry exam for those interested in academics will keep the current setup.

In Hubei province a similar system has been tested, where vocational colleges and universities are admitting students through standardized entry exams with additional skill tests.