Colleges and enterprises in East China's Jiangsu province have been working together to set up academies and design courses aimed at training talents who will support the manufacturing industry's digital and intelligent transformation.

Manufacturing companies have also built production bases on campuses and encouraged students to devise solutions for problems they are currently facing.

For example, the College of Computer Science and Technology at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics has been using a system developed by Nanjing Acoinfo Technology Co and engineers at the company will conduct classes to help the college's teachers and students operate the system. Furthermore, a dozen students will do internships at Acoinfo during this summer vocation and participate in the research and development of the company's projects.

Li Tuo, deputy general manager of Acoinfo, said this move is aimed at grooming software engineers who know well about homemade systems and are able to design and develop intelligent manufacturing systems. Such talents are in great demand in the manufacturing industry and companies should work closely with universities to address the issue, added Li.

Jiangsu's financial authorities have also been helping companies and universities in the province establish laboratories to train information technology talents. Similar efforts will be taken for other sectors including industrial software.

To improve cooperation between colleges and companies, third-party industry organizations should form teams of experts to perform research on the talent supply of the manufacturing industry, said Wu Fei, deputy director at the office of academic affairs of Nanjing Tech University.