Xu Lijie spent an hour dismantling and reinstalling a washing machine at a training center in Nanjing, an operation he must complete within 50 minutes before he can graduate and obtain a technical certificate recognized by European manufacturing enterprises.

Xu, 21, is a third-grade student at Nanjing Technical Vocational College in Jiangsu province. Along with 134 other students he attends a German dual-education program set up by the college and the Nanjing plant of Bosch and Siemens where the students will work after a three-year program that emphasizes theoretical study in the classroom and shop floor technical training. "Precision and patience are the most important lessons I have learned from the program," he said.

The Nanjing plant and Xu's college set up the apprenticeship program in 2006 and it has provided 150 workers for BSH, said Yang Shengchun director of the training center at BSH Electrical Appliances Jiangsu Co.