SZPU has partnered up with Huawei to explore a collaborative education model that benefits the university, its students and faculty, and the industry.
By He Jianbiao, Vice Dean, School of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Shenzhen Polytechnic University
Ten years ago, Huawei started opening up and promoting its certification system. Shenzhen Polytechnic University (SZPU) seized this opportunity and started working with Huawei to build a dual-focus system that stresses both course development and certification, which has since proven successful.
As Huawei's certification system continued to grow and demand for technological breakthroughs increased, Huawei prioritized the development of fundamental technologies and started holding the Huawei ICT Competition. SZPU again responded quickly to this new development and deepened our collaboration with Huawei.
We furthered the dual-focus system by consistently incorporating Huawei's fundamental technologies into our new, technology-focused curriculum system. We have integrated the projects of the Huawei ICT Competition into our curricula, and combined professional education with the development of our student community. This has not only significantly improved the quality of our talent cultivation and academic development, but created a competition-oriented system within our university, meaning our teams are always ready for any competition, of any scale, at any time. For such competitions, our teams have a stellar track record full of honors. Our practices have shown that innovation in talent cultivation can go far and be productive only when it aligns with industry requirements and keeps pace with the times.
Restructuring the course system based on program clusters
SZPU has always believed that the development requirements of enterprises point a direction for vocational colleges to deepen school-business collaboration. In recent years, Huawei's technology ecosystem has been developing constantly, and SZPU is always considering how best to work with Huawei in this regard. There are several key factors that influence our decisions.
In response to the challenges resulting from trade friction and technology blockades, Huawei's proprietary technology ecosystem now extends from the field of communications networks to foundational software, further expanding the scope of collaboration between SZPU and Huawei. With the application and promotion of new technologies, such as Cangjie, HarmonyOS, openEuler, openGauss, and MindSpore, schools need to restructure course resources and talent cultivation systems accordingly. Moreover, Huawei has held ICT competitions as a regular mechanism for identifying and cultivating talent across the industry value chain. Universities must improve their talent cultivation models in the context of competitions and the need for professional certifications.
One of SZPU's major reform initiatives was to restructure our course system in the style of program clusters (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: SZPU's curriculum system for the ICT program cluster
For example, in the ICT program cluster, we have four core majors: modern communications technology, computer network technology, mobile Internet application technology, and IoT application technology. The courses in this cluster are then classified into three categories: basic courses, core courses, and extended courses.
Basic courses are positioned as the foundation for students to master professional knowledge and skills. By adopting a program clustering method, we then break down the basic courses of the four majors into four common modules: network technology, program design, electronic technology, and operating systems. Each module can include several courses, with content of varying scales and difficulties. These basic courses can be selected to create a combination for each major based on needs.
Core courses are key courses that guide students to systematically master professional knowledge and skills. Each major has three modules, and each module contains several core courses.
Extended courses are generally configured based on target positions or related technical fields, with a focus on employability. Each major has two modules, which are closely linked to the employment directions.
In addition, each student must earn a professionally-recognized technical skill certificate before graduation. Therefore, for each major, we recommend two Huawei certifications to our students. This then means we need to think ahead and integrate the learning content of these certifications into the courses of related majors to support our students. To meet such goals, SZPU takes the following approach:
- For students majoring in modern communications technology, Huawei certifications in datacom and cloud computing can be considered. The learning content related to datacom is integrated into the basic courses (network technology A and network technology B) and core courses (such as the datacom module and wireless communications module). Extended professional courses under this major include a cloud-service module that supports students aiming to earn Huawei certification in cloud computing, and a data analytics module that integrates Huawei's big data technology to support students' certification-oriented studies.
- For students majoring in network technology, Huawei certifications in datacom and network operation and maintenance (O&M) can be considered. These certifications largely cover similar or closely related content. The content of this major includes basic courses (network technology A and network technology B) and core courses (such as the network interconnection module and automated O&M module) to support students' certification plans.
- For students majoring in mobile Internet application technology, Huawei certifications in HarmonyOS and cloud computing can be considered. The learning modules for this major include courses on mobile application development and HarmonyOS to support students aiming to earn Huawei certification in HarmonyOS. Students aiming to earn Huawei certification in cloud computing can choose the learning modules focusing on cloud services and Huawei cloud computing. Moreover, we have integrated learning content related to Huawei certification in datacom and IoT within the basic courses (network technology A) and core courses (device hardware development) of this major.
- For students majoring in IoT application technology, Huawei certifications in IoT and HarmonyOS can be considered. To support learning related to such certifications, we provide core courses (IoT communications and IoT application development) as well as extended professional courses (smart homes).
Refactoring our course system into modular program clusters has benefitted us in numerous ways. We are able to facilitate co-creation and sharing between courses of different majors, cover multiple types and areas of Huawei certification in our teaching, and tailor students' learning to the most relevant technologies required for Huawei certification.
Developing Huawei technological courses
Huawei's certification system led to another of SZPU's key reform initiatives: We fully integrate Huawei's technologies with our major courses and develop new courses that incorporate Huawei's fundamental technologies.
Specifically, we match each learning program with potential target positions, corresponding courses, and technical areas covered by Huawei certification. For example, the ICT program cluster covers some courses required for Huawei Certified ICT Associate (HCIA) and Huawei Certified ICT Professional (HCIP) in the areas of datacom, cloud computing, HarmonyOS, and IoT, as well as the courses required by China's vocational skill grade certification (the intermediate level).
Through such actions, we have developed 13 major technical courses designed for Huawei certification. Some technical areas of Huawei certification do not precisely correlate with employment, such as openGauss, openEuler, and big data. However, these technologies are an intrinsic part of a holistic, solid foundation of ICT learning. For these technical areas, we have introduced the respective learning content into courses in the program cluster, such as those on network operating system, database, and data analytics.
Therefore, we have not only fully integrated the courses in our learning program with Huawei's technical certification, but aligned employment with Huawei's certification areas. Huawei certification has become a key advantage of graduates competing in the employment market. More importantly, Huawei's certification system is a premium and highly-recognized technical certification system in the industry. For this system, Huawei has developed comprehensive technical courses and a trainer enablement system. Building upon Huawei's certification system to develop our own ICT program cluster has proven an effective way for our university to rapidly establish a quality ICT curriculum system.
SZPU initially adopted the program-clustering method as a way to comprehensively introduce Huawei's fundamental technologies, and went on to promote the new technology curriculum system. We advocate the introduction of Huawei's fundamental technologies for developing new technology courses in the ICT field.
Last year, the Ministry of Education (MOE) piloted a program for reforming major courses in key fields, and has entrusted SZPU to head the reform of electronic information courses, which is one of the most important projects in the entire program. SZPU immediately identified Huawei as the ideal partner for this task, given our history of productive collaboration.
SZPU brought together 12 electronic information colleges and universities included in China's Double High-Level Initiative (a plan to develop high-level higher vocational education institutions and disciplines) to work alongside Huawei and jointly develop 10 fundamental-technology courses, including Cangjie language program design, distributed database technology, and operating system deployment and maintenance, and 4 fundamental-technology practice projects, such as hands-on training for HarmonyOS software development. We have now built an extensive new technology curriculum system based on Huawei's fundamental technologies, and promoted this curriculum to vocational colleges through pilot projects across the country.
Innovating talent cultivation models
Since 2019, SZPU has further improved the ICT program cluster based on the latest industry development requirements, and improved the talent cultivation model based on our established dual-focus system of developing courses alongside certification through alignment with industry competitions. We have organically integrated job requirements and skill competitions into talent cultivation, and explored an innovative, four-pronged talent cultivation model that covers jobs, courses, competitions, and certification.
First, as part of this process, we clarified the relationships between job requirements, professional courses, skill competitions, and industry certification. Through the dual-focus system of course development and certification, we intend to create a professional curriculum system based on industry certification requirements. We also aim to promote professional talent cultivation that meets industry development requirements by keeping track of the latest industry certification requirements.
The four-pronged model (jobs, courses, competitions, and certification) specifies that job requirements serve as the logical starting point for professional course construction. To ensure that we always have a solid understanding of job requirements, SZPU has run a "1,000-Enterprise Survey" program since 2020, through which all teachers at the university engage in an extensive annual interview with enterprises. This program has helped us gain valuable insights into the target job positions for professional talent cultivation. We then combine such insights with industry certification requirements to form a professional curriculum for each learning program cluster. Then, to prepare our students for industry competitions, we strengthen our talent cultivation system according to a hierarchical, progressive construction method, and improve the quality of talent cultivation through work-study integration. Finally, we leverage industry certifications to validate the quality of our talent cultivation.
In turn, these certifications ensure that the quality of our talent cultivation is both assessable and measurable. Through this model, we have gradually established an innovative system of communications-technology talent cultivation that is enhanced by job requirements, courses, competitions, and certifications.
Second, we align our talent cultivation system with skill competition requirements and strengthen this system through a hierarchical, progressive construction method. Our dual-focus system of course development and certification allows us to achieve more targeted training for students in a categorized, phased, and layered manner. This approach fits with the general rules of education, suits students' needs for progressive academic learning, and improves the quality of the talent we cultivate. By employing this categorized, phased, and layered teaching methodology, we are able to realize hierarchical training of students based on training goals.
The four-pronged model mentioned above facilitates a skill-competition-preparation mechanism, and encourages students to learn independently, train together, collaborate with each other, and participate in assessment and defense presentations while preparing for competitions. This positions students to progressively advance to higher-level coaching courses for competitions. With this hierarchical method, we have successfully laid out paths for students' progressive learning.
Third, we explore innovative ways to deepen industry-education collaboration through skill competitions. The dual-focus system of course development and certification drives shared success for both enterprises and universities based on industry certification and joint ecosystem construction. The four-pronged model (jobs, courses, competitions, and certification) is built on this dual-focus system, through which we base our efforts on preparatory training for skill competitions such as the Huawei ICT Competition. We also introduce enterprise resources to the training environment positioned for the competitions and constantly update such resources. This practice has led to many conducive results. One example is the Huawei ICT engineering training center we have built, which simulates real-world work conditions. Our teachers develop comprehensive practical training courses for this training center, introducing actual engineering projects from enterprises into our practical teaching. This has allowed us to reach a new frontier of integrated work-study teaching, through which we organically synergize course development, Huawei ICT engineering training, and classroom teaching. This has been particularly useful in addressing the difficulties in work-study integrated training in Shenzhen, and set a new paradigm for deepened industry-education collaboration.
A fruitful partnership that elevates education to new levels
SZPU and Huawei share the same goals and have been collaborating to innovate in education for about a decade. This collaboration has yielded remarkable results:
Course development has reached a new level of development. Based on the original national professional teaching resource library, SZPU has formulated 13 course modules based on the integrated planning and design philosophy of program clusters. We have also worked with enterprises like Huawei to update or establish 10 industry technical certification courses and develop 31 professional core courses. As part of this collaboration, we have developed more than 20,000 teaching materials, 51 smart vocational education courses, 565 courses based on the vocational education cloud, and 4 online courses in English. This courseware covers users in more than 200 areas across China, as well as some regions outside China, and has recorded over 10 million online learners by learning times. We have upgraded the communications technology resource library to a teaching resource library offering the modern communications technology program cluster, and developed one national high-quality online open course and four international courses.
The talent we cultivate has achieved great things. SZPU students from the communications technology program cluster won seven champion titles and one First Prize in the Global Final of the Huawei ICT Competition (as shown in Figure 2). They also once took home all three Grand Prizes of the Practice Competition at a Huawei ICT Competition. In this program cluster, over 300 students have become Huawei Certified ICT Experts (HCIEs), placing SZPU first out of all universities in China by number of HCIEs. This figure accounts for 2% of the total number of HCIEs worldwide. SZPU has preliminarily formed a training system on scale for Huawei HCIEs, and is constantly exploring ways for students to reach higher levels of study.
Figure 2: Students of SZPU winning awards in the Huawei ICT Competition Global Final
A strong team of dual-qualified teachers has been growing steadily. Based on the quality courses and trainer enablement resources that accompany Huawei's technical certification system, SZPU promotes project-based teaching and has developed a team of dual-qualified teachers (teachers qualified both as educators and vocational professionals). In the past five years, we have cultivated three teachers recognized as pioneers at the national level, one province-level esteemed teacher, one Excellent Teacher in Southern Guangdong, one Pearl River Scholar, and three national technical experts. We have also built one province-level teacher studio, one province-level communications-technology teaching innovation team, and two 1+X province-level teacher training bases. Our teachers have earned numerous honors in China. These include one Second Prize at the National Teacher Teaching Capability Competition, three First Prizes and two Second Prizes at the Province-Level Informatized Teaching Capability Competition, and two Second Prizes of the Province-Level Science and Technology Progress Award.
Our initiatives have benefited millions. With Huawei's unwavering support, SZPU has established a Huawei ICT Academy Support Center, making us the only vocational college in China to boast an IASC. The IASC provides functions such as teacher training, online platform support, technical services, and activity support, and supports the development and operation of more than 220 Huawei ICT Academies in China. Building on the IASC, SZPU has promoted the talent cultivation model and professional curriculum system that we have practiced through our information and communications program cluster across the entire country.
SZPU was tasked to partner with Kashgar Polytechnic Vocational and Technical College to design the college's modern communications engineering major. We helped the institution plan and develop this major, formulate talent development solutions, and cultivate faculty teams. In this regard, we have fully replicated the dual-focus system of course development and certification, Huawei's technical certification courses, and our dual-qualified teacher team development model to the college.
SZPU has provided technical services for small- and medium-sized enterprises on 300 occasions, provided technical skill training for more than 70,000 employees of small-, medium-, and micro-sized enterprises, and run the national Train the Trainer (TTT) project, all of which have helped promote Huawei's new technologies across the country.
Ten years ago, Huawei embarked on opening up and promoting its technical certification system. Ten years later, practices have shown that innovation in talent cultivation can yield fruitful results only when it keeps pace with industry requirements and resonates with the times.
