The Ministry of Education has concluded its work on supplementing the majors listed in the 2026 Vocational Education Professional Directory. A total of 27 new vocational education programs at the college and undergraduate levels have been added. This batch includes 9 higher vocational college majors, such as Intelligent Agent Communication Technology, Elderly Education Service and Management, and Resort Wellness Operation and Management. It also includes 18 vocational undergraduate majors, such as Hydrogen Energy Engineering Technology, Urban Renewal Design Technology, Embodied Intelligent Computing Technology, and Technical Brokerage Services. These new majors span 14 major categories and 20 professional classes, with enrollment set to begin in 2027.
This move represents a significant step in the dynamic adjustment of vocational education's professional offerings since the release of the 2021 directory. It centrally reflects how program establishment is proactively embracing industrial transformation and deeply integrating with national strategic planning.
Embracing the New: Aligning with National Strategic Direction
An official from the Ministry's Department of Vocational and Adult Education stated that vocational education is actively moving beyond a "small logic" of self-contained development towards a "grand logic" of serving the socio-economic landscape and supporting national strategies. The 27 newly added majors are designed from the ground up based on frontline industry needs, precisely aligning with new industries, business models, scenarios, and modes. They target key areas like the digital economy, artificial intelligence, high-end equipment, urban renewal, and sectors with urgent talent shortages, sending a strong signal about cultivating high-skilled talent.
"A distinct feature of this supplement is its close alignment with national priorities, precisely positioning new majors within the broader framework of serving a modern industrial system and promoting the high-quality, efficient development of the service sector," the official explained. In the producer services sector, new vocational undergraduate majors like Technical Brokerage Services and Low-Altitude Transport Engineering Technology have been added to help industries move up the value chain. In the consumer services sector, higher vocational college majors like Infant and Toddler Family Nurturing and Guidance, and Resort Wellness Operation and Management have been established to address skill gaps in areas vital to people's livelihoods.
"Simultaneously, this supplement strictly references new occupations published in the National Occupational Classification Dictionary, adhering to the principle of addressing urgent needs first while planning ahead, striving to prevent the supply of skilled talent from lagging behind industrial development," the official added. To meet the development needs of digital professions like Robotics Engineering Technicians and Intelligent Connected Vehicle Testers, vocational undergraduate and college majors such as Humanoid Robotics Engineering Technology and Vehicle-to-Everything Communication Technology have been added. Aligning with green energy job trends like Energy Storage Power Station Operation and Maintenance Managers and Hydrogen Energy Engineering Technicians, majors like Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Technology for Energy Storage Materials and Equipment (higher vocational college) and Hydrogen Energy Engineering Technology (vocational undergraduate) have been introduced.
These program additions are not arbitrary but are based on in-depth analysis of technological iteration logic and labor structure. "In recent years, a group of future industries and strategic emerging industries have been accelerating their development. However, the talent cultivation cycle in related fields is 3 to 4 years, creating a misalignment with the rapid iteration pace of cutting-edge industries," the official noted. Taking the embodied intelligence industry as an example, following the 2025 addition of majors like Embodied Intelligent Robotics Technology and Embodied Intelligence Engineering Technology, the 2026 supplement further adds majors such as Humanoid Robotics Engineering Technology, Marine Intelligent Robotics Application Technology, and Embodied Intelligent Computing Technology. This creates a rhythm of continuous follow-up, laying a solid talent foundation for the industry's scaled development.
Guided by Demand: Industry-Education Collaboration and Tiered Integration
How can misalignment between major offerings and actual needs be avoided? The answer provided by this supplement is to fully leverage industry-education integration communities and city-level industry-education consortiums to accurately translate real frontline industry needs and core corporate demands into new majors.
"Relying on the Urban Renewal Industry-Education Integration Community, relevant parties have precisely identified talent gaps in areas like building inspections, structural reinforcement, and intelligent retrofitting within the civil engineering field, leading to the addition of the Urban Renewal Design Technology vocational undergraduate major. Utilizing the Deyang Major Technical Equipment Manufacturing City-Level Industry-Education Consortium, we have deeply explored urgent job needs in equipment manufacturing, such as equipment fault diagnosis, precision non-destructive testing, and intelligent quality inspection, resulting in the addition of the Intelligent Non-Destructive Testing Technology vocational undergraduate major. Through the Vocational Education High-Skilled Talent Cluster Cultivation Plan, and to serve major projects like plateau railways, major strategies like urban renewal, and livelihood areas like childcare and elderly care, a batch of urgently needed and scarce majors have been added," the official stated.
Observing the list of added majors reveals a deeper shift in vocational education adjustments: the system is moving from cultivating skills for single positions towards providing tiered, integrated talent supply covering the entire industry chain upstream and downstream.
"According to estimates, the gap for high-skilled talent in national digital economy and intelligent manufacturing related fields had already exceeded ten million by 2025. At the same time, the single-disciplinary training model of traditional computer and communication majors struggles to cover the multi-position, composite competency requirements involving hardware, algorithms, and scenario coordination, leading to insufficient talent cultivation adaptability," the official pointed out. To address this, this supplement precisely added 6 new digital field majors. These include 4 vocational undergraduate majors: Computing-Network Integration Engineering Technology, Embodied Intelligent Computing Technology, Industrial Software Engineering Technology, and Digital Twin Engineering Technology; and 2 higher vocational college majors: Intelligent Agent Communication Technology and Vehicle-to-Everything Communication Technology.
Among these, the vocational undergraduate majors focus on technical system integration, achievement transformation, and technology application, while the higher vocational college majors concentrate on frontline practical operations, equipment operation and maintenance, and scenario implementation services. This creates a tiered, collaborative education chain, continuously adapting to the increasingly complex high-skilled talent demands of the digital industry.
Precise Adaptation: Supply Optimization and Mechanism Safeguards
It is understood that this professional supplement is not merely about making "additions" to the existing catalog. Instead, it involves systematic design from the perspective of matching talent supply and demand, striving to promote precise alignment between industry job "demands" and major "supply."
While adding a significant number of cutting-edge and in-demand majors, the Ministry of Education is guiding local authorities to utilize the "three lists": in-demand majors, upgraded/transformed majors, and restricted/withdrawn majors. This guides local vocational schools to improve their operational conditions based on regional characteristic industrial development needs, scientifically plan, and orderly establish new majors, preventing a rush to follow trends blindly.
Since the release of the 2021 Vocational Education Professional Directory, vocational education has consistently optimized its professional supply by closely following industrial development needs, conducting regular annual supplements. A cumulative total of 169 majors have been added, accounting for 11% of the total majors in the directory, continuously improving the alignment between the professional structure and industrial requirements.
Notably, the newly added major in Theatrical Costume and Prop Design and Production exemplifies this "precise adaptation" mindset. Theatrical costume and prop making is an excellent traditional Chinese craft. This new major not only covers the inheritance of traditional techniques but also extends its curriculum to emerging areas like intangible cultural heritage cultural and creative product development, derivative product design for opera IPs, and custom costume design for cultural tourism performances. By incorporating it into the professional directory, the goal is to achieve the living inheritance of traditional skills and precisely fill the skill gap in the cultural services sector.
The establishment of new majors is just the starting point. The next step involves the Ministry of Education organizing schools across the country to complete the orderly launch of these majors, promptly developing and refining teaching standards and talent cultivation plans, and clarifying the core competencies, knowledge and skill requirements, and establishment conditions for the new programs to ensure a structured process.
"Looking further ahead, we will continue to improve rapid response channels. We will initiate a comprehensive revision of the Vocational Education Professional Directory at an appropriate time, innovate the directory management mechanism, strengthen the coordinated linkage among postgraduate, undergraduate, and higher vocational disciplines and majors, enhance the connection between employment status and enrollment plans and talent cultivation, and fully leverage the roles of city-level industry-education consortiums and industry-education integration communities to establish a robust, multi-party collaborative professional evaluation system," the official concluded.