Internships and Vocational Skills Training in China with Jenny Chan

China has the world’s largest vocational education system. The number of vocational high school students (aged 16-18), however, dropped from a peak of 22.4 million in 2010 to 15.5 million in 2018, that is, about 40% of the national student population. By contrast, the number of high school students remained fairly stable over the same period, hovering at around 24 million. This project seeks to understand the internship experiences of Chinese teenage students. Under the existing system, a 6-month workplace-based internship training is mandatory for three-year vocational education program. The legal status of interns remains that of students, not employees. The educational and labor rights of interns are worthy of scholarly attention.
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