第44The World Skills Competition2017year10moon14sun to19The event was held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from the World Skills Organization68 Member countries and regions1260 More than six contestants in six major categories51Engage in competitive events. The Chinese delegation jointly dispatched52 The participation of famous contestants is the first time since China participated in the World Skills Competition, with a large number of participants, multiple projects, and good results. The Chinese delegation has won15 Gold7Silver8 Copper12 The outstanding performance of the Excellence Award has achieved a historic breakthrough, with the automotive project winning the award2 gold1 Silver's excellent performance.
At the same time as the World Skills Competition is being held, various forms of automotive skills competitions are also being vigorously held in various provinces, cities, and vocational colleges across the country. Moreover, some colleges have unique features in their automotive skills competitions, which have a wide impact.
1 Current situation of vocational college skills competition
The Vocational College Skills Competition is an innovation in China's education system. It is an important platform for reviewing the achievements of vocational education teaching, showcasing the skills of vocational school students, and reflecting their professional knowledge, expansion ability, and practical operation ability.
The Automotive Technology Skills Competition is a common event among many skill competitions, and there have been many different modes of holding it, among which "world competitions" and "national competitions" are more common. At the same time, various provinces, cities, and schools also hold competitions according to their own actual situations, resulting in a scene of a hundred flowers blooming together.
2 The advantages of conducting skill competitions in private universities
At present, China's economic structure and social development mode are undergoing significant changes, and the country's higher education has also entered an important period of transformation. This will mean new huge challenges and potential development opportunities for every private university. Since the reform and opening up, China's private higher education has made significant progress, but there are numerous private universities with uneven quality levels. To survive and develop in the competitive market, private universities must enhance their core competitiveness, find a suitable path for their own development, and strive to stand undefeated in fierce competition. Therefore, many universities take professional skills competitions, especially those with significant impact, as a shortcut to improve their academic performance. As a private vocational college, conducting skills competitions has certain advantages due to its nature and characteristics
2.1 Flexible system and distinctive personality
Private universities have emerged and developed under the conditions of a market economy, with keen market responsiveness and adaptability. They can timely respond to market signals, truly face the needs of society and education, choose appropriate educational services that meet the diverse educational needs of society, and enrich the diversity and selectivity of educational supply. Private universities can form their own characteristics, which is the foundation of their strong vitality.
2.2 Having greater autonomy
Autonomy is mainly reflected in the following directions: flexible setting of majors, independent decision-making of personnel selection and appointment, independent choice of school management system, independent choice of enrollment and employment mode, independent decision-making of asset management and fund use, independent exercise of major decision-making power and internal supervision power, etc.
2.3 Competitive spirit and quality awareness
Faced with market driven competition, private universities have a strong sense of crisis and quality awareness. In order to survive and develop in the market, they will inevitably be willing to spend more energy and investment on improving the quality of teaching and research, establishing schools, and serving students' development and the market, making them more competitive.
2.4 Focus on long-term development
Due to the establishment of the "management" concept in private universities, the use of market operation principles to operate the school, the introduction of competition mechanisms, constraint mechanisms, and motivation mechanisms, the emphasis on and implementation of cost accounting, the allocation and utilization of all teaching resources according to needs, and the control of unnecessary expenses, large benefits can be obtained with limited resources.
2.5 Employment oriented
Private universities attach great importance to the employment situation of their graduates, as the quality of their employment can affect their reputation in society, which in turn affects their enrollment and ultimately their long-term development. For this reason, private universities are willing to invest a lot of energy in employment guidance work, providing targeted career planning and employment training for students, enhancing their employment and entrepreneurship abilities, improving their employment rate, thereby enhancing their social reputation and attracting more students to study.
3 Problems in the Implementation of Skills Competitions in Private Universities
Undoubtedly, the vocational college skills competition has had a positive impact on showcasing the achievements of vocational education, deepening educational and teaching reforms, promoting the close integration of talent cultivation and industrial development, expanding the attractiveness of vocational education, promoting school enterprise cooperation, and playing an important role in guiding vocational colleges to develop their own characteristics and achieve excellence. Private universities can use this platform to showcase and exchange their educational achievements, improve their academic performance, and enhance their competitiveness with public universities. However, during this process, some vocational schools have encountered some misunderstandings in understanding and preparing for skill competitions, resulting in a deviation between the purpose of vocational colleges conducting competitions and the original intention of skill competitions advocated by the country. This situation is particularly prominent in some private universities.
3.1 High enthusiasm for the competition, limited funding investment
For example, in the automotive technology skills competition, there are high requirements for the equipment and teaching staff. In a certain province's automotive technology skills competition, in order to win the championship, some schools spend huge amounts of money to purchase specialized facilities, equipment, tools and consumables for the competition, hire professional personnel from enterprises with high salaries, and mobilize more teachers than participating students. According to the equipment requirements in the competition documents of the automotive technology skills competition, the purchase of related equipment reaches hundreds of thousands. However, most private universities rely on tuition fees for operation and have a single source of funding. Faced with the need to invest millions of dollars to participate in a competition, many private universities often hesitate, which seriously undermines their enthusiasm for participation.
3.2 The development of skill competitions focuses too much on the cultivation of "elite" students
At present, most car skill competitions generally require a team to1-3People, this makes it a game for a few people. However, some private universities, in order to achieve good results in competitions and enhance their reputation, have set up special funds to select students and teachers for training. At the same time, in order to ensure that the training results of participants improve rapidly, they are willing to use all resources of the school to give them a green light and even occupy practical resources of other students, which seriously affects the practical teaching of other ordinary students' majors and causes conflicts between participating students and ordinary students.
3.3 Focusing too much on the training of practical skills in skill competitions and neglecting the cultivation of other qualities in students
Taking the automobile technology skills competition in a certain province as an example, the participating projects include mechanical disassembly and assembly of automobile engines, maintenance of vehicle performance, and diagnosis and troubleshooting of engine faults. Students and teachers participating in the training will use these technical documents to conduct operational training 24/7 at the training venue. Therefore, participating students basically do not need to participate in other courses and knowledge learning, neglecting the cultivation of students' team spirit, behavioral norms, comprehensive abilities, etc., resulting in these students only mastering the skills of the competition project after participating in the training, which is extremely detrimental to their growth.
3.4 The competition is too utilitarian and neglects the overall development of the school
In order to improve the school's reputation, some school leaders are enthusiastic about investing tens of thousands or even millions of dollars in automotive skills competitions. However, they should be aware that as private universities, their investment is limited. If they invest too much in certain competitions, it will inevitably affect the construction and development of other majors, thereby affecting the overall development of the school. After all, the development of a school cannot be determined by a professional skills competition.
4 The direction of development for skills competitions in private universities
With the44 The remarkable achievements of Chinese participants in the World Skills Competition have once again attracted the attention of vocational schools' skills competitions. In the future, where should the development of skills competitions in private universities go?
4.1 Never forget why you started, and your mission can be accomplished.
The Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that "the implementation of vocational education must implement the national education policy, provide ideological and political education and professional ethics education to learners, impart vocational knowledge, cultivate vocational skills, provide vocational guidance, and comprehensively improve the quality of learners." This requires the leaders of vocational colleges to adhere to the original intention of education, clearly recognize that the purpose of vocational education is to cultivate skilled talents, and participate in skill competitions to showcase students' skills, rather than turning this into a utilitarian means.
4.2 Based on the actual situation of our school, do not aim too high, while expanding the scope of benefits
Faced with the benefits brought by various important national competitions, private universities need to have a clear mind and comprehensively consider whether the benefits brought by these competitions are in line with the development of the school. As mentioned earlier, it is difficult to invest tens or even millions of funds to participate in an automotive skills competition, and to achieve good results in many vocational colleges throughout the province. It should be noted that the foundation for achieving results lies in the school's long-term faculty strength, professional construction, talent cultivation, and other aspects. Therefore, skill competitions held by private universities should be based on the actual situation of the school, the level of teachers and students, as well as the professional experimental equipment and training bases of the school. At the same time, the skills competition should broaden the scope of benefits, gain more recognition and support from teachers and students to participate, so that the skills competition can promote the improvement of professional skills and the development of majors in our school.
4.3 Utilize social resources to jointly explore skill competitions that are in line with the actual situation of our school, and achieve a win-win situation
If private schools hold skill competitions and receive support and participation from enterprises and industries, it will undoubtedly enhance their influence and effectiveness, and gain wider recognition from society. Therefore, private universities should focus on formulating relevant policies to attract more industry enterprises to continuously introduce new technologies and equipment into skill competitions. This way, schools can gain recognition from enterprises, teachers and students, and society at low cost. The enterprise industry only needs to invest a small amount of resources, but it can enhance brand image and social influence, thus achieving a win-win situation for both or multiple parties.
At the same time, schools should take advantage of the opportunity of skills competitions to establish long-term and stable cooperative relationships, deeply develop and utilize advanced technology and equipment resources, so that they can serve skills competitions and vocational education teaching.
5 Conclusion
The reform of skill competitions in private universities should first have a clear understanding of their own actual situation, utilize all available social resources, actively seek support from the government, industry, and enterprises, tap into the potential of the university, adhere to the core of vocational education, adhere to the principle of "using competitions to promote teaching", and eliminate utilitarianism; Adhere to the principle that competitions serve students, society, enterprises, and industries, and actively explore competition models that are recognized by the industry, enterprises, society, and teachers and students.