Chen Siqi vankochensq@163.com A MODEL drone patterned after a cuckoo, which helps researchers observe birds, made its designer, Qin Xiutao from Shenzhen Institute of Technology, stand out among 11 contestants in the Industrial Design Technology event of the third Vocational Skills Competition of Guangdong, which ended in Shenzhen on May 21. The drone, installed with a rotating camera that can capture ultra-high-definition photos and videos, outperformed its rivals in color, shape and technical performance, according to judges. “I was so excited to win the prize, and it boosted my confidence in further practicing my skills,” the 18-year-old said. This gold medal qualifies Qin for China’s 2nd Vocational Skills Competition to be held in Tianjin in September as a member of the provincial team. Contestants from Shenzhen won 53 awards with 21 golds for the 92 events of the third Vocational Skills Competition of Guangdong, the province’s highest-level competition of its kind. The city ranked second, following Guangzhou, in medal and gold medal counts. Practice makes perfect “The drone’s software system shut down three times during the contest,” Qin said. “This emergency situation made my mood go up and down.” Qin then took a deep breath to calm herself and waited for technical personnel to tackle the issue. “The competition was not only a test for technical skills but also a challenge for a contestant’s capabilities in handling emergencies,” she said. Keeping a cool head, having strong skills and techniques, as well as persistence and hard work were behind Qin’s satisfactory results. During her first year at the institute, she experienced difficulties and setbacks in her study since she had not taken any formal drawing lessons previously. However, a voice deep inside of her kept telling her to insist. She devoted a lot of time to training her professional skills. While Qin was preparing for the contest, her self-imposed schedule involved working almost every day from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Industrial design technology combines design and engineering to ensure consumer products work well and look good, as per the description presented at the official website of WorldSkills Competition. As for Qin, design is the most important but difficult part, requiring one to come up with innovative ideas and procedures afterward. “In order to achieve this, you need to read more design books, think more and make summaries,” she said. Alternative option “Since I was a little girl, I was very interested in disassembling products, like alarm clocks and remote controls, and then assembling them back together,” Qin said passionately. “So I made my mind to major in industrial design.” According to Qin, industrial design technology is attractive as technicians skilled in this technology are able to create more products that make people’s life better. Official data showed in 2022, 54% of Shenzhen’s 108,000 students who attended high schools enrolled in general public high schools, and around 16% of them entered general private high schools. Apart from that, over 30,000 students went to the city’s 27 secondary vocational schools, including 11 technical schools. Four years ago, Qin failed the exam for her ideal general high school. Fortunately, this setback led her to embarking on a vocational journey in industrial design technology, providing her as much space to explore all possibilities in her area of interest. In 2022, Qin won a silver medal in an industrial design technology event of a Europe-Asia vocational skills contest held online. She has also taken extra time to practice her English, hoping to enter bigger competitions in the future. Future development Shenzhen’s technical schools now boast 45,000 full-time students in 92 majors. The employment rate of these graduates stood at 98%, according to a Shenzhen Special Zone Daily report. According to Huang Chengjun, an industrial design teacher with Shenzhen Institute of Technology, students majoring in industrial design usually have two possible career choices — one is to work in companies specialized in industrial design, and the other is to work as a product designer in enterprises targeting other fields. This raises a question on universities and vocational and technical schools that have set up industrial design majors — what are the advantages of vocational and technical school students? “Universities and technical schools are different in cultivating learning strategies and methods,” Huang said. “One learns more theoretical knowledge in university, while one learns more about practical skills in a vocational school — like, teaching students to draw rough sketches and make a product model.” Skilled talents show strength in practical techniques and are seen as competitive in the employment market because they can work after a short training period, Huang added. Shenzhen is now home to over 4 million skilled talents, accounting for one-third of its total employees. High-level talents account for 36.69% of the city’s skilled talents, which is 5 percentage points higher than that of the country, according to the city’s human resources authority. | 