In the context of high-quality development, vocational colleges, guided by the Hunan spirit of pursuing excellence and striving for perfection, are actively exploring strategies for cultivating high-quality skilled talents. This article first comprehensively overviews the concepts and connotations of “Hunan Craftsmen”, “Hunan Craftsmen Spirit”, and “Skilled Talents”. Then, through integrating theory with teaching practice, it analyzes the current situation of cultivating high-quality skilled talents, identifies the existing problems, and proposes strategic plans to strengthen the cultivation and team building of high-quality skilled talents, aiming to assist in the transformation of regional economic structure and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.
1. Introduction
In the era of globalization and rapid technological development, especially under the influence of AI technology, countries around the world are facing the challenges of industrial transformation and upgrading, leading to intensified competition. Currently, Hunan Province is also in a crucial period of economic development and industrial structure adjustment. On the one hand, the “One Belt and One Region” initiative has changed the economic coordinates of Hunan Province. The new positioning of the province by the state has led to the rapid development of manufacturing, advanced equipment manufacturing, and high-tech industries, which urgently require highly skilled and high-quality craftsman talents to support greater development and innovation in the industries. On the other hand, based on the concept of high-quality development, the state attaches great importance to the cultivation of skilled talents and has launched a series of policies and measures to promote the development of vocational education and the spirit of craftsmanship. Hunan Province actively responds to the national call and focuses on the cultivation of skilled talents, aiming to build a craftsman team with Hunan characteristics. However, in teaching practice, the cultivation of skilled talents faces many challenges and problems. Against this background, vocational colleges’ in-depth research on how to cultivate “Hunan Craftsmen” and explore suitable strategies for cultivating skilled talents in line with the actual situation of Hunan Province is of great significance for enhancing the regional competitiveness of Hunan Province, promoting industrial development, facilitating employment, and inheriting and promoting Hunan culture.
2. Connotation of Basic Concepts
2.1 Hunan Craftsmen
Hunan culture is brilliant, producing not only many academic research achievements but also a large number of outstanding talents who have contributed to the prosperity of the country. “Hunan Craftsmen” refer to the craftsman talents with outstanding skills and exquisite techniques who have grown up in Hunan Province. These talents not only master the corresponding skills and techniques but also actively inherit and promote the craftsman spirit of the Hunan region in their work, and are an important driving force for the development and technological progress of Hunan’s industries.
2.2 Hunan Craftsman Spirit
The Hunan craftsman spirit is the essence of Hunan culture, and generations of master craftsmen and labor models have grown up under the inspiration of this spirit. The Hunan craftsman spirit is both a symbol of the people of Hunan’s self-improvement and unity and progress and a unique spiritual outlook formed by the people of Hunan in the process of economic and social development. The Hunan craftsman spirit has multiple levels of connotations, as follows. First, the pursuit of excellence, that is, the pursuit of excellent skills and quality. Whether in traditional crafts or modern industries, Hunan craftsmen strive to achieve the ultimate in every detail and pursue perfection. Second, inheritance and innovation. Hunan craftsmen actively inherit the traditional crafts and techniques that have been passed down in Hunan for thousands of years and combine them with modern techniques to carry them forward. For example, in the firing of Liling underglaze multicolored porcelain, Hunan craftsmen, on the basis of inheriting the traditional process and artistic style, introduce modern design concepts and production techniques, making traditional porcelain radiate new charm. In the inheritance of traditional architectural techniques, Hunan craftsmen combine modern building materials and structural design to create architectural works that not only have the charm of traditional culture but also meet the needs of modern life. Third, striving for perfection. Hunan craftsmen pay attention to details, constantly challenge the limits, and strive to be the best. Fourth, teamwork. Hunan craftsmen attach great importance to teamwork and team spirit construction and achieve common progress through mutual cooperation and learning. Fifth, responsibility and 担当. Hunan craftsmen are responsible for their work and society. They understand that doing a good job is to serve society and meet the ever-increasing material and cultural needs of people. It can be seen that the Hunan craftsman spirit reflects the respect of the people of Hunan for skills and their firm belief in the pursuit of excellence and is a vivid and wonderful manifestation of Hunan culture in the field of skills.
2.3 Skilled Talents
Skilled talents refer to those who possess certain professional skills and practical abilities and can be competent for work in specific fields. Scholar Zhang Wencai, referring to documents such as the International Standard Classification of Education of UNESCO, constructed an element model of skilled talents, that is, only when skilled talents possess five core elements can they be called qualified skilled talents. These five elements include a relatively high level of professional theoretical knowledge and skill operation level, relatively high ideological and moral quality, excellent psychological and physical quality, good interpersonal and teamwork abilities, and relatively strong comprehensive post abilities.
3. Current Situation and Problems of Cultivating High-Quality Skilled Talents
3.1 Current Situation of Cultivating High-Quality Skilled Talents
The essence of the moral and technical cultivation and education mechanism constructed by vocational colleges is to enable students to form the craftsman spirit needed by the times and society. In recent years, Hunan Province, centering on the strategies of rejuvenating Hunan through science and education, strengthening the province through talents, and innovation-driven development, has regarded strengthening the construction of the skilled talent team as a strategic task, achieving certain results in the cultivation of skilled talents. By the end of the “13th Five-Year Plan”, the total number of skilled talents in Hunan Province reached 5.16 million, among which 1.5 million were highly skilled talents, accounting for approximately 29.07% of the total number of skilled talents. Specifically, the current situation of talent cultivation and development can be summarized as follows.
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
| Training Mode Expansion through Competitions | Hunan Province actively holds various vocational skill competitions, technical competitions, post training, and master-apprentice teaching activities to promote training through competitions. It has gradually formed a vocational skill competition system led by the World Skills Competition and the National Skills Competition, with the Hunan Vocational Skills Competition as the leader, provincial industry skill competitions and local competitions at all levels as the main body, and enterprise post training and vocational college skill competitions as the foundation. In the past three years, Hunan Province has cumulatively held more than 150 skill competitions, with more than 4.7 million participating employees, and has cultivated 17 “national technical experts” and 107 winners of provincial-level and above vocational skill competitions. |
| The Rise of Young Craftsmen | Hunan Province has strengthened the cultivation of young talents in the cultivation of skilled talents, making a large number of energetic young craftsmen become the backbone of the Hunan skilled talent team. For example, Li Shaopeng, born in 1990, is now the chief engineer of China Construction Western Construction Hunan Co., Ltd. He led the team to set a new record in the domestic concrete industry only eight years after starting work. Guo Dongni, born after 1995, is a core technical member of Changsha Changtai Robot Co., Ltd. of Zhongnan Intelligence and achieved the top eight in the Chinese division in the First Global Foundry Industry Youth Forum. The rapid rise of young craftsmen shows the vitality and creativity of the new generation of skilled talents in Hunan Province and injects new impetus into the cultivation of skilled talents. |
| Establishment of Craftsman Colleges | To improve the quality of skilled talent cultivation, Hunan Province attempted to build a “Whampoa Military Academy” for cultivating craftsmen and established the Hunan Craftsman College on May 8, 2024. Relying on this college, the Hunan Federation of Trade Unions actively carried out the “Skilled Workers All over Hunan” vocational skill training for employees, built an employee vocational skill appraisal center, an alliance of employee innovation studios, and a craftsman talent exchange and learning center. In terms of employee vocational skill training, it plans to build a six-level cultivation model for model workers and craftsmen, fully docking with the “3 + 5 + 3”, “Three Highlands” landmark projects and the “4×4” modern industrial system in Hunan Province, and actively expanding the training model for Hunan skilled talents. |
3.2 Problems Facing the Cultivation of High-Quality Skilled Talents
In recent years, in order to promote the cultivation of skilled talents, Hunan Province has successively issued a series of policy documents, such as “Opinions on Strengthening the Cultivation of Skilled Talents and Building a Province with a Large Number of Skilled Workers” and “Implementation Opinions on Promoting the System of Lifelong Vocational Skill Training”, which have helped talent cultivation from the policy mechanism and achieved certain results. However, overall, there are still some problems in the cultivation of skilled talents in Hunan Province, and the shortage of highly skilled talents still exists, which cannot meet the needs of the region’s economic structure adjustment and industrial upgrading and development. The specific problems can be summarized as follows.
| Problem | Description |
|---|---|
| Lack of Hunan Cultural Spirit in Teaching Plans | Hunan Province has a unique and profound Hunan culture, and the Hunan craftsman spirit is also rooted in Hunan culture and has been passed down and developed from generation to generation. However, in some skilled talent cultivation plans, the content of Hunan cultural spirit is relatively scarce, and the expressions of Hunan cultural elements such as the “pragmatism” patriotism, the “daring to be the first” innovation spirit, the “continuous self-improvement” struggle spirit, and the “courage and boldness of innovation and sacrifice” are insufficient, and the integration of the “pursuit of excellence”, “striving for perfection”, “team spirit”, and “inheritance and innovation” in the Hunan craftsman spirit is less. This makes the cultivation of skilled talents lack a spiritual core, and the cultivated skilled talents lack the imprint of the regional characteristics of Hunan in their spiritual traits. |
| Lack of Innovation in Skilled Talent Cultivation Model | In recent years, there has been a great breakthrough in the cultivation of skilled talents in Hunan Province, and the number and quality of skilled talents have both improved. However, Hunan Province still faces the dilemma of a shortage of highly skilled talents. The main reason is the lack of innovation in the skilled talent cultivation model and the failure to break through the limitations of the traditional talent cultivation model, which is specifically manifested in the following aspects. First, in terms of curriculum setting and teaching content, it fails to fully combine the development needs of Hunan’s characteristic industries and update and optimize in a timely manner. For example, Hunan Province’s advanced manufacturing, cultural and creative industries, etc. have distinct regional characteristics, but the cultivation of relevant skilled talents is not designed around the new technologies, new processes, and new requirements of these industries, resulting in a disconnect between the cultivated talents and the actual industrial needs. Second, the practical teaching link is insufficient. Although some vocational colleges have practice bases and cooperative enterprises, the depth and breadth of practical teaching are still not enough, which is not conducive to the improvement of students’ innovation and practical abilities and cannot meet the high requirements of Hunan’s economic transformation and upgrading for highly skilled talents. Third, in the construction of the teaching staff, there is a lack of “dual-qualified” teachers with rich practical experience and innovation ability. The knowledge structure and skill level of some teachers have not kept up with the rapid changes in Hunan’s industrial development, and it is difficult for them to effectively guide students to master cutting-edge skills and lack innovation in teaching. |
| Imperfect School-Enterprise-Government Cooperation Mechanism | First, from the perspective of enterprises, some enterprises have low enthusiasm for participation in cooperation. There are many small and medium-sized enterprises in Hunan, but some enterprises themselves face great development pressure and lack the motivation to invest manpower and material resources in the cultivation of skilled talents. Although some large enterprises have the intention to cooperate, in actual operation, due to the lack of an effective interest coordination mechanism, the cooperation effect is not ideal. For example, in some emerging industrial fields, there are large differences between enterprises and schools in terms of talent cultivation goals and curriculum settings, and no consensus has been reached. Second, from the perspective of schools, some vocational colleges have problems such as insufficient understanding of enterprise needs and a single cooperation model in the docking with enterprises, or fail to fully consider the actual needs of local enterprises in professional settings and curriculum arrangements, resulting in a disconnect between the cultivated students and enterprise job requirements. Third, the policy support and coordination role of the government needs to be strengthened. The governments at all levels in Hunan Province have issued a series of policies and measures to promote school-enterprise-government cooperation, but there are still some deficiencies in the implementation and execution, and a relatively perfect tripartite cooperation mechanism has not been established. |
| Imperfect Talent Evaluation System | In the cultivation of high-quality skilled talents, some vocational colleges mainly take the results in competitive competitions and whether they have obtained vocational qualification certificates as the assessment criteria, ignoring the five elements that constitute skilled talents. In other words, at present, the evaluation of skilled talents in Hunan Province mainly focuses on the mastery level of professional theoretical knowledge and skill operation level, overemphasizes professional skill achievements, and ignores the assessment of the ideological and moral quality, psychological quality, physical quality, interpersonal relationship, and teamwork ability of talents, resulting in an imperfect and incomplete evaluation system. In addition, the talent evaluation system also has the situation that it does not fully consider the special needs of Hunan’s industrial structure adjustment and transformation and upgrading, and does not pay enough attention to the evaluation weights of some skills and innovation achievements with Hunan characteristics, and cannot accurately measure the actual contribution and value of talents in the specific development environment of Hunan. |
4. Strategies for Cultivating High-Quality Skilled Talents by Casting “Hunan Craftsmen”
4.1 Dig Deep into the Spiritual Connotation of Hunan Culture and Cultivate the Spiritual Fertile Ground for Skilled Talent Cultivation
Vocational colleges should conduct in-depth research on classic works, historical events, and outstanding figures related to Hunan culture, comprehensively sort out the spiritual characteristics contained in Hunan culture, and integrate them into the teaching syllabus for skilled talent cultivation to guide students to understand the unique cultural and spiritual connotations of Hunan and use them as the driving force for growth. At the same time, the elements of the Hunan craftsman spirit, such as the pursuit of excellence, striving for perfection, team spirit, and inheritance and innovation, can be integrated into teaching content and practical activities. Through case analysis, teacher-student interaction, and other forms, students can be guided to experience the power of the Hunan craftsman spirit in skill practice. In addition, vocational colleges can organize students to participate in activities such as the inheritance and exchange of Hunan culture and stimulate students’ interest in skill learning through competition items and tasks.
4.2 Innovate the Skilled Talent Cultivation Model Based on the Development Needs of Hunan’s Industries
Vocational colleges should conduct in-depth research on Hunan’s characteristic industries, understand their specific needs for skilled talents, including skill requirements, knowledge structure, and innovation ability, and reform and optimize the curriculum and teaching content accordingly. Increase professional courses related to characteristic industries, introduce new technologies, new processes, and new requirements in the industries, and ensure the timeliness and practicality of teaching content. Strengthen the practical teaching link, further deepen cooperation with enterprises, build high-quality practice bases, provide students with more time and opportunities for enterprise practice, and encourage enterprises to introduce actual projects into the campus for students to practice and intern through industry-university-research cooperation. Strengthen the construction of the “dual-qualified” teaching staff by introducing professionals with rich industrial experience to enrich the teaching staff and providing existing teachers with opportunities to work in enterprises and participate in training to update their knowledge structure and improve their skill levels.
4.3 Establish a School-Enterprise-Government Cooperation Mechanism and Optimize Resource Allocation
The government should take the lead in strengthening multi-party connections and building a school-enterprise-government cooperation mechanism. Establish a risk compensation mechanism for enterprise participation in cooperation to reduce enterprise risk concerns through tax incentives, financial subsidies, and project support. Explore diversified cooperation models such as order-based cultivation, joint construction of training bases, and joint research projects. Improve relevant policies, clarify the rights and obligations of all parties, and establish a sound supervision and management mechanism. Actively build a communication and exchange platform for schools, enterprises, and the government to promote information sharing and experience exchange. In the process of establishing the cooperation mechanism, attention should be paid to the optimal allocation of resources. Enterprises should give full play to their advantages in technology, equipment, and funds to provide practical teaching resources and internship and employment opportunities for schools. Schools should use their educational resources and talent advantages to provide employee training and technical consulting services for enterprises. The government should do a good job in coordination and guidance to promote the rational flow and effective utilization of resources among the three parties.
4.4 Improve the Talent Evaluation System around the Elements of Skilled Talents
Combine the five core elements of skilled talents to improve the existing talent evaluation system, pay attention to the assessment of the ideological and moral quality, psychological quality, physical quality, interpersonal relationship, and teamwork ability of talents in addition to professional skills. The construction of evaluation indicators should meet the requirements of Hunan’s industrial development, fully consider the special needs of Hunan’s industrial structure adjustment and transformation and upgrading, and incorporate skills and innovation achievements with Hunan characteristics into the talent evaluation and assessment scope. On the basis of competition results and examination scores, introduce diversified evaluation methods such as project practice results, comprehensive skill display, and actual work performance to comprehensively understand and evaluate the actual abilities and potentials of skilled talents.
5. Conclusion
In summary, in the context of high-quality development, cultivating high-quality skilled talents is of great significance. In view of the existing problems in the cultivation of high-quality skilled talents, vocational colleges should focus on integrating the spirit of Hunan culture, innovate the skilled talent cultivation model, strengthen the construction of the school-enterprise-government cooperation mechanism, and improve the talent evaluation system, so as to cultivate a larger number, higher quality, and highly consistent with social needs of high-quality skilled talents for society.
