Recently, the 4th set of organisations charged with evaluating vocational training and offering vocational-skills certificates was announced for the Ministry of Education’s 1+X certification–system pilot programme. The Evaluation of Demand for Geriatric Care vocational-skills certification, formulated by the OUC Education and Training Centre and principally organised by China Everbright Industrial Group, was included.
Geriatric-care vocational and management training is a key responsibility of the OUC Education and Training Centre. In August 2019, the centre, together with the School of Nursing at Peking University, put its training resources to use to develop the Evaluation of Demand for Geriatric Care vocational-skills standards on the basis of recruitment needs. Its contents are closely integrated with the syllabi, teaching, examinations and materials involved, promoting the project with concerted efforts, and laying the foundation for being included in the fourth set of vocational-skills certificates issued by the Ministry of Education. At the same time, in order to promote the integration of schools with enterprises, the centre has set up collaborations with the School of Nursing of Peking University, China Everbright Industrial Group, Guanghua International Education Association (GIEA), and other institutions to form a community that features a deep integration of industry with education and research in order for market research and training to be implemented together. The role of China Everbright is to provide the training and examinations.
During the formulation of the standards, the centre organised multiple rounds of panel discussions to solicit the opinions of experts and companies, who said that, with demand for geriatric care increasing, the standards may provide guidance to needs assessment, helping vocational colleges provide appropriate training, and companies to target their services accurately. This will be of great significance for maintaining a high level of geriatric services.
At present, the centre is organising a team from the Peking University Department of Medicine, and related experts from geriatric-care institutions, to accelerate development of teaching materials and resources, as well as examinations, that meet the vocational-skills standards. In this way, it is laying a foundation for the OUC to be informed of the standards and offer certification within the pilot 1+X certificate programme.
By Dong Sujuan, OUC