Experts in the education sector who attended the Jiangsu provincial "two sessions", the annual gatherings of local legislators and political advisors that took place from Jan 19 to 23 this year, called for more efforts to enhance school-enterprise cooperation and improve vocational education in the province.

The cooperation between higher education institutions and companies plays a significant role in the high-quality development of occupational education, the transformation and upgrading of companies, as well as the synergy between education, industries, talent and innovation, experts said.

Zuo Jin, a deputy to the fifth session of the 13th Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress and director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange of Huaiyin Institute of Technology, said such cooperation can help students better master theories through practice and find employment while satisfying companies' demand for technical know-how.

In her research, Zuo found several issues with current school-enterprise cooperation, such as the inconsistency between the structure of school disciplines and the latest industrial structure, and ambiguity in students' rights.

Pan Wangjie, a member of the 12th Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPPCC and director of the education bureau of Binhu district in Wuxi, suggested governments introduce favorable policies to encourage companies to engage in such cooperation, and for schools to optimize courses and train teachers to improve their competitiveness.

Vocational schools produce talent particularly for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. More research is required on how to recognize a company as one that is involved in school-enterprise cooperation, said Gao Jian, a member of the 12th Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPPCC.