MANY FACTORIES IN SHENZHEN, South China's Guangdong province, have complained that there is a shortage of workers after the Spring Festival holiday. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The labor shortage is a national problem, with the insufficiency of skilled workers particularly worrying. Statistics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences show that although China has 165 million technical workers, the shortfall in high-level technicians can still be counted in tens of millions.

The shortage of labor, particularly the skilled workers, is a characteristic of the labor market. The days when companies could profit from cheap labor have now gone. The employers must take the initiative in adapting to the change, paying more attention to training employees and providing skilled workers with decent wages and benefits.

Also, the lack of skilled technical workers presents valuable opportunities to vocational schools that had long been regarded as training institutes for young people whose academic performance meant they could not secure a place at university.

Now it is much more difficult for university graduates to find jobs than vocational school graduates, and the payment of skilled blue-collar workers is markedly higher than common office clerks.

The vocational schools should cast off the stereotype image that they are temporary caretakers of the worst students, make the best use of government funds and invite the most qualified teachers.

The experience of some countries with developed vocational education systems, such as Germany, France and Sweden, indicates the vocational schools can cooperate with the employers, especially those using cutting-edge machines and technologies, to better prepare the students for the market, training more students for the badly needed posts, such as welders, bench workers and operators of computer numerical control machinery.

With the rising of the skilled workers' status and income, it is believed the vocational education system in China will assume a bigger role in social and economic development.