China’s AI Boom Sends Jobseekers Back to the Classroom

Five years after graduating from a vocational school in the southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, Chen Hao found himself working as a salesman for a local electronics factory.

His daily routine involved exhausting trips between corporate clients, and he had not seen a pay rise for years. The 26-year-old decided he wanted a change.

“Everybody in Shenzhen is talking about artificial intelligence, so I want to find a job in the sector too,” Chen said. “I know my degree makes it impossible to get into a big-name tech company, but I just want a desk job so I don’t have to spend all my time on the road, and in a field with a more promising future.” He quit his job recently and has been checking out short-term AI courses at local technical colleges. 

He has visited four but remains undecided, adding that their curricula were not the main attraction.

“Learning AI skills itself is not the point, because you can learn them online as well,” Chen said.

“The point is that these schools can connect you with industry insiders – who often serve as the instructors – and ultimately lead to a job.” The swift expansion of AI in China, triggering job-loss fears and boosting demand for those with AI skills, is driving people like Chen to seek out specialised vocational training.

Job postings for university graduates in China’s AI sector surged 28.4 per cent in the first five months of the year, Xinhua reported early this month, citing data from recruitment platform Zhilian. And demand for AI talent was rapidly spreading beyond the tech sector, it said, with manufacturers accounting for 21 per cent of the openings for AI engineers.

With demand increasing, Beijing had ordered the country’s technical colleges – which offer multi-year and short-term courses – to launch targeted training programmes in cutting-edge sectors like AI to help rural migrant workers, recent university graduates and other jobseekers find employment, state broadcaster China Central Television reported this month.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security releases enrolment guidelines for technical colleges each year, adjusting quotas and targets to match shifting macroeconomic priorities.

Last year, it said the focus was on shielding workers in sectors hit by the US-China trade war. AI is becoming deeply embedded in vocational education, with a Tsinghua University report in January showing that nearly half of China’s vocational schools had rolled out introductory AI courses.

Because the underlying algorithms and mathematics behind AI technology were very complex, Fan Shiwei, an admissions coordinator at a technical college in Sichuan province, said technical schools focused primarily on teaching practical, foundational skills.

He said students with a science background should study data labelling or smart manufacturing engineering – tracks that would prepare them to handle factory equipment powered by AI. For others, he suggested learning how to use AI software to produce short videos, images or articles, paving the way for them to become digital media operators.

“This year, I am getting more calls from people who are interested in it, mostly university graduates who have struggled to find work,” Fan said.

He said many instructors were industry professionals working at local companies, and that a student who graduated with a bachelor’s degree could secure a job paying at least 6,000 yuan (US$886) a month after completing the college’s three-month AI course.

Xiong Bingqi, director of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, said that while vocational schools had a role in cultivating talent with AI skills, market demand needed to remain their primary guide.