While university enrollment numbers are seeing a dip, vocational schools are filling up with bachelor's degree holders, ready to learn some hands-on trades.
Some call it upgrading to vocational college and others call it just common sense.
We'll explore why China's Gen Z is rethinking the value of another degree and what happens when the old formulas stop adding up.
We're live from our studios in Beijing.
This is Roundtable.
I'm Steve.
Thanks for being with us today.
And for the show, I'm with Fei-Fei and Xingyu.
First up, a university degree has long been sold to us as the golden ticket, a laminated certificate promising a stable career, a decent salary and a clear path forward.
But for many in Gen Z, that promise is starting to feel like a bit of a mismatch.
Across China, postgraduate exam applications have dropped for three consecutive years.
Meanwhile, bachelor's degree holders are heading back to vocational schools to learn some hands-on trades.
And it's not about giving up on education, not at all, as a matter of fact.
But it is about questioning what education actually means to us and what it might actually be for.
As AI reshapes industries overnight and employers warn of widening skills gaps, young people are no longer content to simply adapt to a job market that feels Out of sync, if I can put it like that.
Fei-Fei and Xinyu, good afternoon to you both.
It feels like a case of students assessing the market and then adjusting accordingly.
Well, on some level yes, but now i would say, another change, another shift is quietly happening between, for example uh, the students in at the education system and also in the employment, the job market.
All right, so what are some of the issues then?
When it's uh, when we're discussing education and employment, I think the most notable thing, not only here in China, but also on a global scale, is that we are seeing a bigger and bigger mismatch between jobs and the majors, the study programs that most students are able to enroll themselves in.
And so when they start to enter the job market, many of them struggle to find the work.
Well, on the other hand, we are hearing from companies and employers saying they can't find the people that they want with the right skills.
And that's the mismatch.
You're talking about the workers that are entering into the job market and then the jobs that are actually available.
Yeah, there's like the mismatch here and that's been sort of proven by a set of data from the World Economic Forum in 2025.
They released a report called Future of Jobs Report 2025 and they said Skill gaps are considered the biggest barrier to business transformation, with over 60 of employers identifying them as the major barrier over the 2025 to 2030 period.
So it's happening on a global scale and it's been on the head of many, many companies.
I would say, when it comes to where do I find my right talent?
Yeah.
And the students are saying, where do I find my right job?
Yes.
I think we have to look at the situation from a broader societal change, because we have seen these technological development happening across the world, whether it's the AI or big data.
And also we are seeing economic uncertainties, also geographic, demographic shifts, especially the aging population, happening globally in major countries around the world.
So these factors, they are reshaping the global labor market as well.
So like the report that Fei-Fei mentioned, I've looked over to that report.
It also says 85% of employers, they're planning to prioritize upskilling their workforce.
That means they want their employees to have Or to learn new skills based on this trending, because we are seeing AI being incorporated in various numerous fields.
So if you don't have such skills, then maybe employers, they don't want to hire you.
I'm just because you have a higher degree, not the skills, and it can be a yeah.
Yeah, this presents a challenge on both ends of the spectrum, because if you are an older employee, for example, you've been working in a particular industry for I don't know 25 years or so.
All of a sudden, AI comes along and you have to almost, I would imagine relearn your job, at least to a certain degree.
Then, on the other end of the spectrum, you've got the students coming out who are going to university and learning a lot of theory.
I think we're going to touch on that a little bit later.
Very theoretical university tends to be for a lot of different subjects.
And then they're entering the job market and the employers are saying wait a sec.
So we've got the older employees who need to learn.
We've got the students coming out of university who haven't learned yet.
There is a disconnect there, and this is creating a huge problem.
Some more numbers from that report.
60% of employers expect AI to transform their business by 2030.
I'm surprised the number's that low.
I thought it would be 100% of employers.
Advancements in technology, in particular, advancements in technologies, AI, and information processing, 86%.
Expect changes there.
Robotics and automation, 58% there.
Energy generation, storage, and distribution, 41%.
Those are also expected to be transformative changes. across various industries.
And that means that there's a need for a more up-to-date or modernized workforce.
Yeah, especially when it comes to, you know, AI or robotics.
And when we're looking at our majors in university and also in vocational schools, and also even other skill training programs may be carried out in companies.
They also need to keep up with this kind of technologies.
We have an example from a person called Wang.
She worked in human resources for over 10 years at a fairly large smart electric vehicle company here in China.
And she observed that right now for a talent working in their industry, the EV industry, it's very highly interdisciplinary.
That means it requires the talent to have technological knowledge across different fields, probably covering more than three majors in your university.
You need to understand electric vehicle engineering.
You need to understand software development.
You also need to understand autonomous driving technology and as well as the batteries.
Wow.
That's a lot.
This is not specialization training.
And division of labor.
Mm-hmm.
Hashtag Adam Smith, I think, right?
This is, you have to know how to do a lot of different things within the same industry.
I'm suddenly reminded.
I remember when I interviewed a Broadway musical director or actor, I forget, and they were talking about when Broadway changed.
Mm-hmm.
And it used to be the way when, if you wanted to be a Broadway actor, you were either a great singer or a great actor or a great dancer.
But then it changed, and they call it the triple threat.
So now, if you want to be a Broadway star, you have to be able to sing and dance and act.
All three together, not just one.
And I was reminded of that because of, Fei-Fei, what you just said, You don't just need to be specialized in one thing.
You have to know a lot of different things.
This is stressing me out, and I'm not even a student coming out of university.
And also thinking about our industry, even for the media industry as well.
Like in the past, if you were a journalist, you were either really good at writing, or you were able to edit your audio or your video, or you were able to take a photo really, really well.
But now when we are going out as a journalist, we kind of need to do everything on our own.
We need to be able to know how to do videos.
We need to know how to write a good story.
We also need to know the right questions to the right person.
So it's not like three people are doing this, probably in the past, but now it's on the one person agenda job.
Miss Wong, the person you referenced, she continued on with that quote.
She said, many graduates have limited experience in implementing real projects and remain largely at the theoretical level, which is what I mentioned before.
They often struggle, she said, to think about products from a company's perspective or balance product design with market expectations.
And, as a result, it usually takes them a longer time to adapt to a new work environment and their professional responsibilities.
So that's why I think I've read through the news recently during the two sessions, and one of them is that the Communication University of China made the headlines because the university just dropped 16 traditional majors for this undergraduate program.
You mean dropped mean cut or dropped mean like an album like they just came out? cut.
So that's no longer available in the university process.
And that major include translation, photography, visual communication, design, art management.
So these majors, they think, will be replaced, easily replaced by AI in the future.
So they are shifting, like cultivating talents with these traditional skills.
Rather than that, they are shifting towards the abilities that won't be easily replaced by AI and develop more versatile abilities.
I mean, we're not going to go down that rabbit hole today, but that in itself is incredibly stressful for the students that are already involved in those programs, right.
Maybe they get to stay and finish, but still, you know, knowing those programs are going to be cut, that's going to be a load on their shoulders.
And I think that's one of the reasons.
When it comes to their expectations in their future jobs, they kind of lean in toward the stable ones, like the government jobs or state sector jobs.
Civil servants, yeah.
And that leads to a problem of, for example first of all, there are just so many opportunities out there when it comes to these kind of stable jobs.
And so, when it comes to, for example, the guokou, the examination that we need to take to enter one of the government agency that you need to take is over competitive.
That's one problem.
And then that leads to another problem is that you're not opening up your world.
You're not opening up your possibilities out there.
So it's not only a societal problem, but also, when it comes to personal development, is another issue as well.
All right, so then, what can be done?
I mean, what can we do to better match if that's the right word jobs and school programs and maybe give young people a little bit of hope about their job expectations?
Yeah nationwide, during the two sessions, the country just released this 2026 government work report And there's a point which says the country will promote integrated development of education, science and technology and talent.
And this is also a major task for the 15th five-year plan, which is a strategic development plan.
From 2026 to 2030.
So the country's advancing like reforms of higher education institutions and also adjust academic disciplines and majors according to the societal change and also industry changes.
Yeah, I mean, innovation depends on it's not just research funding, right?
It's also on the education system that's educating the talent, training that talent, and then the industries that are applying these new technologies.
So yeah, research funding is important for discovering new ideas, but then industries need to turn those into real products and to get people to the new people, the new people in the job market.
To turn those into real products.
They need to have hands-on experience.
And when it comes to this integrated development of education, science and technology and talent, I would say we have a lot of sort of choke points currently when it comes to coordination.
First of all is the institutionalized, institutional level of mismatches when it comes to, for example ministries, government agencies, the Ministry of Education, overseeing educational system.
And when it comes to science technology, that's another ministry's problem.
So those three things, so the things that I just mentioned right, the education aspect, the research aspect and then the industry aspect, those are operating independently now.
Those are like each ministry or what have you.
They're operating independently, and that means if they're operating independently, it means there's no coordination right.
Or sometimes very difficult to coordinate among three of them.
One of the challenges, sure.
Yeah.
So when it comes to this point of promote integrated development of these three points, We are not really sure on the grounds what changes would happen at this current stage, but we could say this could lead to institutional reform when it comes to the funding system, when it comes to joint coordination mechanism among the three ministries, for example, and they can also be reforms on the evaluation system, because when it comes to universities and researchers, how to evaluate to them has been a haddock for so long and so many of them that only relying on the paper that you published and only relying on certain projects that your research, you are able to get.
But when it comes to these papers and researches, are they really going to be able to be commercialized on the market?
That remains to be a question mark.
So how to make this process more smoothly?
That's the question.
There was a professor from, is it Beihang or Baihang?
Beihang.
Beihang University.
That said, I believe that, in the future, the central government will establish a body or mechanism that transcends individual ministries and high-level authorities will issue collaborative guiding documents in terms of resource allocation.
We need to improve the efficiency of resource utilization.
Moving forward.
We should establish open and shared mechanisms integrating the resources of universities, research institutes and enterprises into a coordinated system.
So that's what we're talking about here, right?
Businesses working closely with the universities and the government, kind of overseeing or working alongside the businesses and the universities, to make sure it is a collaboration.
One of the examples I think is the Outstanding Engineer Training Reform.
This is a major national initiative to cultivate top-tier engineering talent through university and industry integration, and it was launched in 2022.
And if we look at the data as of the end of 2025, this model has jointly enrolled and trained nearly 26000 masters and doctoral students of engineering.
I think this is one of the examples showing that how universities and industry they can collaborate together and to train the talents that can be easily recruited and enrolled by other companies in the future after they graduate.
Yeah, we talked about that on Roundtable, the outstanding engineer training reform.
Interestingly is that, when it comes to the curriculum design for this master postgraduate students, not only the universities are making them companies.
Enterprises can also pitch in on what kind of topics, for example, should be included in their curriculum, and they also can collaboratively determine The kind of student enrollment, other training plans and also research topics.
So they are also when it comes to the outcomes innovations coming out of this partnership.
They can also be shared among these universities and enterprises.
It's great, but they have to move quickly.
They have to move very quickly with this action plan because the number of national if we're looking at what the students are doing now, the number of national postgraduate entrance exam applicants in 2026 was almost 35 million, 343 to be exact.
Now, that's an important number because it's down 450,000 applications compared to 2025.
And when you compare that to the peak of 2023, it was at 4.74 million.
So that's a cumulative drop over three years of over 1.3 million.
That is a concerning number.
Now, that's from the student's point of view.
From the employer's point of view.
Official data shows that the demand for master's graduates fell from 20 in 2024 to 17 in 2025.
And when you compare that to the demand for vocational graduates that rose from 8 to 11, we're seeing a change in motion here.
This isn't something that's going to begin.
It's already begun.
And those numbers, the 8 to 11.
That shows a growing preference for technical skills versus again, Higher degrees.
Yeah, based on theory and perhaps theory alone.
Yeah, so that's why I think we're seeing this trend that undergraduates students they are returning to these vocational colleges to learn more skills instead of going to postgraduate entrance exams.
What would be an example of that?
Like learning what?
There's this Zhengzhou Railway Vocational and Technical College.
And in its 2025 enrollment plan, the college opened a program called Electric Multiple Units Maintenance Technology.
So this is used for high-speed trains and it is cultivating students who can, first of all, the market demand for related technical position is clear, so that can ensure stable employment prospects for these students coming out of these programs.
And also these programs have high requirements for students, not only theoretical foundation, but also their learning ability.
So making them more suitable for students with bachelor's degree to seek further specialized training at this vocational college.
And then there's different initiatives that are being promoted in different regions around the country too.
Yeah, in vocational schools in Qingdao, in Taiyuan, in Xuzhou a lot of cities that are known for their manufacturing, for their industries are also launched really similar enrollment pilots targeting these bachelor degree holders to going back to school.
So these changes in skilled workers, they can be observed as well.
There's a program called the National Level Master Artisans.
That's actually a series of featured stories of artisans.
It was launched by CMG and All China Federation of Trade Unions since 2015.
There was a social media survey recently about that.
And what did they find from that survey?
So that survey looked at over 100 these master artisans.
We call them 大国工匠 in Chinese.
These are experts in their field, right?
Yes, like basically craftsmen.
And a lot of them with real, very experienced, skilled workers.
And they looked at over 100 of them and revealed some of the subtle changes in this digital age.
They found that, since 2018, their workwear, the suits they wear in their factories or their labs, are getting lighter in color.
You mean the clothing they're wearing?
Yeah, more of them are wearing white suits.
Why?
More scientific?
Well, that means when it comes to white suits.
That means their work are sort of involving highly precise fields like semiconductors, advanced materials, where cleanness and precision are critical.
And that's why they are wearing whiter and lighter colored suits.
Not just a fashion statement.
No, not really.
And they also found that over 70 of these craftsmen are now working regularly with digital devices or, you know, smart machines or robots.
And some are even saying I think in this year's documentary one of them are saying they no longer just need to work as much heavy hands-on work as before.
But that doesn't mean that human skills are not important.
But in fact they found that between 2022 to 2025, the share of careful pause movements on their hands are being observed.
For example, these artisans hold their hands still to confirm or double check.
Their work rose to about 65.
So we're seeing that, when it comes to the skills needed in this current age, It's not only about you know, you need to work hands-on on some of the devices, but you need to be very, very precise.
You need to have a high level of control and you need to be able to do fine adjustments as well.
Yeah, so jobs are changing, right?
Even for the experts that have been doing it for a long time.
Yeah, so even when we are like adopting AI technologies into our work, we still need these Like master artisans in some of this very delicate work.
We need in like human capability or skills.
Like it's not like these kind of jobs are disappearing, but I think they are just being transformed, like many industries as well.
So and but when it comes to, for example, this new innovation coming to the job market, coming to our workplace,
Another thing is happening is that I think they also are requiring people to know more areas, to be more about interdisciplinary programs.
Yeah, studying more than just one thing and one thing only.
Yeah, so in the past, I think my dad used to learn the burning of coal.
He just learned the technologies and science behind burning the coals.
But now, of course, first of all, fossil fuels, that's another problem.
But when it comes to the current major, no one can find a job solely learning the science behind the burning.
You need to know more.
You need to.
For example, I think there is an example coming from a National People's Congress deputy called Yuan Silang.
He works in the forging industry, melting of the metals industry.
And he said currently they're also working with softwares where you can create a digital twin of the metal, of the forging metals.
So you can test digitally virtually, on how you can better forging this piece of metal simulation.
Yeah, so you can do it perfectly.
Yeah, so you can do it perfectly.
Enhance your efficiency, cutting down all the costs.
Now there, you have to understand the science of the metal yeah, and the forging process, and then you have to understand the software of the technology yes, computer skills as well.
Yes, and he said it has been a sort of a quote-unquote bottleneck technologies in China, and that is the reason that he called for more and better coordination between these science and tech and schools and industries that we're talking about.
So that said then, what kind of projects can we expect to see, practically speaking?
In Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province, we're seeing they have launched this pilot project on low-altitude intelligent technology and talent.
It was led by Beihang University's Hangzhou Innovation Institute.
It is also in partnership with the local government in Binjiang district and also Zhejiang Airport Group.
So the goal is to turn exciting ideas in drones, smart aviation and AI power systems into real-world solutions.
So it's not just about theories.
It's about solving real-world problems.
And from 2024 to 2025, this project has launched.
Altogether, 15 projects have been launched And several technologies, including runway condition monitoring systems, airport personnel tracking systems.
They're already being tested at airports in Hangzhou and cities like Ningbo and Wenzhou.
I'm hearing a lot about engineers.
Scientists.
Yes, we need those so much.
We do, but we don't only need those.
Of course not.
So I think one proof of that is in the early of 2025, the Ministry of Education announced that they add new majors to the undergraduate study catalog.
This is the official catalog that Hanau University is telling them.
You know, these are the majors that you can start to enroll students this year.
And usually they used to update them every 10 years.
And now they need to update them every year.
10 minutes.
Wow.
Not that frequent.
Feels like though, doesn't it?
Yeah.
And there are a lot of many of these new majors that are interdisciplinary.
For example, in Nanchang University they launched a new major called senior health and care that incorporates clinical medicine, geriatric medicine, which is the medicine targeting the elderly people, and also rehabilitation.
So, when it comes to taking care of our elderly, we're not only talking about medical students, we're also looking at rehabilitation.
And another very interesting major, I think, is called Dance Therapy.
I heard about this one.
Yeah, this is from Nanjing Normal University of Special Education.
Yeah, I think it's the country's first major on dance therapy, as a matter of fact.
They put it in the School of Music and Dance.
And it looks into both the art of dance and music as well as psychology.
So that's a cool advancement there.
Then you've got majors like AI education and infant development and health management.
Those have been newly added to the catalog as well.
It's good to see, because if we're creating these new programs for the scientists and the engineers, that's wonderful.
But if we're introducing these new programs only for the scientists and engineers, then obviously some people are going to get left behind.
All right.
So then, young people can be more than just an adapter to the job market.
I guess, with these changes,
Yeah, because when it comes I think I heard a lot of experts talking about this is that, in the future of our educational system, the changes that currently, when we're talking about teaching students, we not us in the studio, but the adults design the books.
We design the curriculum.
We design what kind of knowledge we want to teach to the children.
But now it's more of, you know, it's not only a single direction lane anymore.
It's also about what the students want to learn and what the world really needs.
So the educational system needs to be more open and needs to be more dynamic and also needs to be very fast to changes in the world.
Wow.
I just feel like it's harder for these teachers and professors in the college and universities to keep up with the trend and also the emerging industries.
How to cultivate these talents who, after graduation they can find a suitable job, you mean to guarantee their employment rate.
That's That's really not an easy task for these teachers as well.
Yeah, and also not easy for the students as well.
I think back in the old days when I was studying in high school, for example.
It can be quote-unquote easy, because the only task that we do is just remembering everything on the textbooks.
But now, if we're talking about high school students, just sticking to your textbooks is no longer enough anymore.
You just need to open up.
Your children are years and years away from entering into university.
But what do you think, Fei-Fei?
What advice are you going to give them about what to study when they get to that age?
Should they choose or should you choose?
Should the family choose?
University is the correct path for them.
Well, I think first of all is finding your own passion and interest.
Well, it sounds really cliche, you know, finding your own passion.
That's scary advice.
It is, isn't it?
Yeah, but I think it's only crucial because the world is changing so fast.
The major you pick.
Thinking you know this is what the market needs right now will be very different when you graduated.
So, instead of thinking what would be a high paid job, maybe thinking about the kind of skills you really want to learn, like looking at the bachelor degree holders going back to the vocational schools, they well, they're looking for just a kind of skill.
That's your own growth.
I think that would be my advice.
Just acquire as many possible skills as you possibly can, because the more you know, the better.
I guess right, because you never know what's going to change.
Ai, it just feels like it fell out of the sky And it's just dominating our lives and dominating our jobs nowadays.
And it feels like people didn't have any time to prepare for it.
So my point is you never know what's going to come.
Follow your passions.
Yep, that's good advice.
But also acquire a lot of skills while you're following that passion too.
That sounds like pretty good advice, I guess.
Only cliche.
Or at least for the next 10 minutes, something new is probably coming up.
Later this afternoon.
