Currently, the spring recruitment season is in full swing in Huzhou, with over 30 public employment service activities launched this month alone.
Amid the fervent activity, a pressing reality stands out: demand for engineering and technical skills has surged sharply, highlighting the persistent contradiction where manufacturing faces hiring difficulties while some young people struggle to find employment. Multiple companies report that their hiring criteria have shifted away from prioritizing academic qualifications and majors alone, placing greater emphasis on practical abilities and job-role alignment.
Huzhou has long had strategies in place to address this challenge. The "New Era Blue-Collar" initiative launched two years ago has consistently targeted the core issue of skills mismatch. Today, the total number of skilled personnel in the city has surpassed 720,000, with high-skilled talent reaching 250,000. Both metrics rank among the top in the province, building a solid foundation to alleviate structural employment imbalances. Recent observations delve into Huzhou's practical approaches for using skills development as a solution, fostering a two-way alignment between talent and industry.
**Delivering Training Within Industrial Chains, Connecting Classrooms Directly to Workshops**
Addressing pain points in corporate digital transformation, Huzhou recently introduced OPC (One-Person Company) empowerment training and AIHR Pioneer programs, supplying the latest skills to meet urgent manufacturing labor needs.
On March 6, an OPC new ecosystem seminar was held at the Municipal Employment Building. Liu Zhuoqi (William), Secretary-General of the Yangtze River Delta AIHR Innovation Consortium and CEO of Huzhou Zhixing Artificial Intelligence Technology Co., noted that a common anxiety among Huzhou manufacturers is "wanting to use AI but not knowing how to implement it." The OPC training targets recent graduates, unemployed individuals, and young entrepreneurs, leveraging AI tools to lower barriers to employment and entrepreneurship. The first session is scheduled for mid-next month, with over 40% of current registrants coming from Huzhou's "1366" modern industrial system.
As part of the "Digital Brain" project for manufacturing HR, the AIHR Pioneer program launched last December focuses on the core of digital talent acquisition and development, systematically teaching practical applications of AI in recruitment forecasting, workforce efficiency management, and skills training. The first session trained over 40 HR professionals with a 98% satisfaction rate. Trainee He Jianyan used AI to generate a corporate promotional video with a tenfold efficiency increase, while another trainee, Brother Xi, used AI to optimize a recruitment demand forecasting model, improving accuracy by 35%. The training produced six actionable solutions, truly achieving "immediate application with effective results." A second session is planned for next month, focusing on developing internal AI trainers to drive deeper AI integration within enterprises.
While cutting-edge training tackles immediate problems, integration of industry and education strengthens the skills foundation at the source. It is reported that Huzhou has broken down barriers between campuses and companies, facilitating cooperation between over 600 key local enterprises and 18 technical (vocational) institutions. This establishes a training model characterized by "enrollment as recruitment, school entry as company entry, and graduation as job readiness."
Leveraging its concentration of manufacturing firms, Changxing County has deepened cross-provincial school-enterprise collaborative education, recruiting over 800 students last year from Yunnan, Guizhou, Anhui, and other regions. It employs an integrated training model combining ordered training,定向培训, and apprenticeships to precisely build a skilled talent pipeline for enterprises. At the Intelligent Manufacturing and Elevator School of Huzhou Vocational and Technical College, Jiuli Group regularly arranges for its executives, senior engineers, and highly-skilled personnel to teach classes. Student Li Menghao stated that this deep integration of theory and practice is pragmatic and grounded, providing a solid foundation for smoothly entering the workforce and adapting quickly. Anji Technician College, closely aligned with local industry needs, has added new majors such as Industrial Internet, Robotic Welding, and Live-stream E-commerce. This new educational model has yielded significant results, achieving a 100% graduate employment rate, with 90% choosing to work or start businesses in Anji.
To make skills enhancement accessible and inclusive, Huzhou is accelerating the development of a "30-minute vocational skills training circle." By the end of last year, the city had established 5 skills training bases and 13 training stations, achieving full coverage in county towns and central towns.
The Hushui Anjian School, operated by the Water Affairs Group under the City Group, has built over ten physical training scenarios for confined space operations, water production treatment, chemical inspection, and more. It innovates with a dual-track model of "industry experts + corporate trainers," nurturing master technicians like Chu Yunlei. The school was successfully selected as one of the province's first batch of elite skills training stations.
Notably, Huzhou has included 20 digital and key industrial roles, such as E-commerce Specialists, Metal Heat Treatment Workers, and Battery Manufacturing Workers, in its shortage occupation catalog, offering a 30% increase in training subsidies to guide resources toward the most critical areas.
Statistics show that in 2025, Huzhou conducted hierarchical and categorized vocational skills training for 74,200 person-times, including 57,600 person-times in key sectors. It added 52,900 new skilled personnel, including 18,500 high-skilled talents. From AI-empowered new training models to deeply integrated industry-education collaboration, the city is providing precise, practical, and efficient skills supply, offering a vivid solution to structural employment challenges.
**Empowering Enterprises with Evaluation Rights, Giving Skilled Workers Clear Prospects**
Late last year, Zhejiang Province announced the list of pilot enterprises for the "New Eight-Grade Worker" system, with six Huzhou companies, including Huzhou Yongyi Furniture, Changxing Geely, and Yongxing Special Materials, making the list—the highest number in the province. This system allows frontline technicians to progress step-by-step from apprentice to chief technician based on practical performance, breaking through career "ceilings." This exemplifies Huzhou's reform-driven approach to genuinely transferring the power of skilled talent evaluation to the market and enterprises.
Skills are truly useful when enterprises have the say. Centered on Huzhou's "1366" modern industrial system and addressing pain points like high evaluation thresholds, long cycles, and difficulties in cultivating复合型人才, the city has comprehensively implemented "competency-oriented" evaluation standards in recent years. Enterprises are permitted to assess and select talent through various methods, including work performance reviews, on-site operation assessments, vocational skills competitions, and project contribution evaluations. The city has established interconnected "dual channels" for technical and skilled talent evaluation, incorporating 140 occupational types into a mutual recognition catalog, and devolving evaluation authority for 14 specialties to enterprises and industry associations. This enables horizontal mobility between technicians and engineers and vertical career progression.
Data indicates that by the end of last year, the city had registered 521 enterprise self-evaluation institutions, covering over 280 occupational types. Annual skills level certifications exceed ten thousand person-times, allowing skilled personnel to advance based on actual performance and capability.
Jiuli Group innovatively implemented a skills points system, converting technical problem-solving, mentoring, standard-setting, and profit contributions into points directly linked to compensation, position appointments, and grade promotions. Employee Mo Guofeng, specializing in nuclear power materials, successfully overcame production bottlenecks for high-end products, achieving import substitution for key materials and significantly reducing costs and increasing efficiency for the company. Based on his outstanding performance, he advanced from a frontline team leader to a recipient of the State Council Special Allowance, achieving a skip-level promotion.
Through self-evaluation, Zhejiang Jinzhou Pipe completed skills grading for over 400 employees, resulting in a high degree of alignment between skills and job requirements and a continuous improvement in product quality stability.
It was learned that to further streamline processes and reduce burdens, Huzhou pioneered a "one training, dual certification assessment" model last year, breaking down barriers between human resources and social security departments and industry regulatory bodies. This model focuses on 12 high-demand occupations like electricians, welders, scaffolders, forklift drivers, and elevator installation and maintenance workers, promoting combined training for "qualification certificates + vocational skill level certificates."
Under this model, trainees need only participate in one systematic training session to simultaneously take both mandatory qualification exams and skill level assessments. This effectively solves issues like redundant training, repeated certification exams, and wasted time and money. To date, Huzhou has conducted 28 joint training sessions, producing over 1,200 "dual-certificate" skilled personnel.
Trainee Cai Zhengqi remarked that previously, obtaining two certificates required separate training sessions, which were costly and time-consuming. Now, with joint training, the time required is halved, costs are significantly reduced, and subsidies can be applied for after passing the skills level assessment, truly achieving less hassle, lower costs, and higher efficiency.
From the New Eight-Grade system broadening career paths, to enterprise self-evaluation empowering companies, to dual-certificate integration streamlining processes, Huzhou's package of reforms breaks down barriers related to status, education, and administrative silos. It constructs a diversified evaluation system centered on ability, performance, and contribution, providing clear channels, dignity, and prospects for the vast number of skilled workers. This offers solid institutional support for resolving structural employment contradictions and bolstering high-quality industrial development.
**Leveraging Skills for Higher Pay and Increased Satisfaction, Making Blue-Collar Jobs Desirable**
At Henglin Home Furnishings, Wang Xing, awarded the first "Anji Craftsman" title in 2023, still vividly remembers the moment: during the award ceremony, his phone buzzed with a notification for a skills subsidy deposit—a 10,000 yuan reward instantly credited. "I never realized technical skills could be so valuable," he remarked.
In the machining workshop of Zhejiang Zhongde Automatic Control Technology, over 85% of frontline workers hold advanced technician qualifications or higher. As a company deeply involved in high-end control valves, it treats industrial workers as core craftsmen within the industrial chain. By establishing sound skills-based薪酬体系 and clear cultivation and promotion channels, it ensures technicians become the backbone of industrial innovation.
Skills have tangible value, and hard work is rewarded. In Huzhou today, skills are no longer an implicit value but are directly convertible into "real money" through salaries, allowances, rewards, and benefits, giving blue-collar technicians both prestige and substantial gains.
Huzhou uses能级工资集体协商 as a core mechanism, issuing specialized operational guidelines to build a distribution system where "higher skills earn more, and more work earns more." Statistics from the Municipal Federation of Trade Unions and the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau show that 3,346规模以上 enterprises with trade unions have implemented能级协商, achieving an 85.79% coverage rate, with full coverage among county-level and above industrial reform pilot enterprises. The city has signed 3,104能级工资集体合同, covering 3,502 enterprises and benefiting 375,300 employees. The average wage for technical workers has increased by 7.8%, effectively promoting a shift in the compensation system from "position-based pay" to "skills-based pay increases."
Ao Silong, an employee at Zhongzhi Huiyun (Deqing) Technology, experienced this firsthand: after the implementation of能级工资, his monthly income increased by 2,610 yuan due to skills improvement, competition awards, and professional title promotions.
Competitions promote learning and enhance skills. According to the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, last year, Huzhou saw 36 individuals selected as "Zhejiang Craftsmen," 6入选省特支计划人才, one unit and seven individuals recognized as provincial mid-career outstanding contributors. At the 3rd National Vocational Skills Competition, the city won 2 silver, 1 bronze, and 2 excellence awards, its best historical performance, with a group of workshop technicians stepping onto the nation's top skills stage.
The full release of skills' value is driving a profound shift in employment perceptions. Increasingly, young people are abandoning the traditional mindset of "prioritizing only academic degrees and white-collar jobs," actively choosing to learn skills, enter factories, and become craftsmen.
The Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau stated that this year, Huzhou plans to provide vocational skills training for over 30,000 person-times and add more than 15,000 new skilled personnel, enabling more workers to establish their careers and increase their income through skills and capability. There is reason to believe that when blue-collar jobs offer clear prospects, craftsmen are respected, and technical skills lead to prosperity, the challenge of "skills shortages" finds its most enduring and humane solution.