Cooperation Between Colleges and Companies: Vocational Education, Skill Mismatches and China's Turnover Problem

The Chinese government promotes cooperation between colleges and companies in vocational education to improve the supply of skilled workers and increase labour productivity. This study employs the concept of positive coordination – negotiations concurrently addressing productive and distributive questions – to analyse the advantages and limitations of voluntary cooperation embedded in networks. In terms of production, many projects focus on updating, narrowing and deepening curricula to lower the costs of initial training borne by companies and the risk of labour turnover. In terms of distribution, however, the deep and narrow curricula are at odds with students’ preference for general and transferable skills; and the mutual commitments of both companies and students are uncertain. The solutions provided by cooperation are partial and unstable. Overall, they reduce skill mismatches but cannot control turnover or overcome market failure, which undermines tertiary vocational education's contribution to labour productivity. 中国政府提倡高等职业 、 技术教育院校的校企合作、产教融合，以改善技术工人的供应、提高劳动生产能力。本研究采用了积极协调的概念，即同时解决生产型和分配型的谈判问题，来分析嵌入网络中自愿合作的优势和局限性。在解决生产问题方面，许多校企合作项目的目的在于降低企业承担的初始培训成本和劳动力流失风险，因此关注更新、变窄和加深课程。然而，在解决分配问题方面，深深窄窄的课程与学生对通用、可迁移技能的偏好互相冲突。而且，企业和学生的相互承诺也不确定。由此，校企合作的解决方案既不完备又不稳定。总体而言，校企合作虽然有利于提高技能匹配，但是难以控制人员流动或克服市场失灵，后者由此削弱高等职业教育对劳动生产能力的贡献。