Expansion of Vocational Education and the Social Reproduction of Working Class in China

In post-reform China, the value of education is heightened in the country’s development of a market economy. Driven by a neoliberal ideology of human capital development, the Chinese state envisioned education as a motor of economic growth and has implemented a series of education reforms. In parallel to the adoption of an export-oriented growth model, the role of vocational education is emphasized in the past two decades – to train secondary school graduates with skills to match the needs of the developing industrial sectors. This paper describes how the expansion of vocational education in China responds to the neoliberal idea of human capital development. It also investigates its impact on the life chances of students with rural background, who previously had limited chance for post-compulsory education. Based on the fieldwork data collected in three vocational schools in Chongqing, we find the students have an urge to craft marketable selves through the acquisition of educational credentials. Earning degrees in vocational schools is motivated by their aspiration for upward mobility. However, many students show their pessimism after working side-by-side with other factory workers on the production lines during their internship. This paper argues that under the developmental mode in a globalized market, China relies heavy on labour intensive manufacturing-based economy. The state-capital alliance has already shaped and structured the types of jobs that available in the labour market. The expansion of vocational schooling operates in the guise of training and skill development; but, in reality, these educated youth only becomes members of the new generation of migrant workers for the use of the export-led industrialization. The human capital argument for national development has failed to deliver on its promise.