Disseminating New Technologies Through Vocational Education for Rural Change in China

Effective dissemination of new, applied technologies through ruralvocational education and training has the potential to change thetypes of economic activities and economic performance levels of ruralpopulations, so contributing to improving their quality of life andlevel of community development. However, ways to effectively bringabout such change at the grassroots level in rural communities have notas yet been widely documented in either practical or theoretical terms.Using an agro-technical school as a case study, the research reported uponhere identifies key factors that are crucial for achieving successfulchange in rural China. Contributing factors were found to include: thelevel of government commitment to empowering rural villagers with newknowledge and expertise; the ability to effectively disseminate informationon best practice to promote the entrepreneurial capacities of ruralcommunities; and adoption of an approach that incrementally exposes targetgroups to appropriate strategies for sustainable change. It was foundthat in order to be effective in facilitating the desired sustainablechange, the intervention process needs to achieve capacity buildingwith regard to both the individuals and communities involved. In thecase study referred to here, the communities were successful in developingnew expertise through strengthening and upgrading vocational education andtraining to create more productive means for income generation. Theeducation institution involved also acquired additional roles, withregard to formal training programs, in preparing villagers for moreeffective technology-based production. In this case, vocational educationserved as a successful empowering agent for rural change.