Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

A dozen minutes later, when he saw several Young Pioneers picking up the litter on the ground and jumping around as they threw it into the trash can, Zhuang Zhongchen almost burst out laughing on the spot.

Can anyone tell me why these Young Pioneers scarves are like locusts, swarming through the streets and alleys, sweeping away almost all the good deeds and acts of kindness? What's even more infuriating is that this time-traveling guy didn't even manage to snatch one?

Seriously? Are you kidding me? This year's Young Pioneers are so rude!

"Never mind." Realizing it was almost time for work, Zhuang Zhongchen had no choice but to give up.

Currently, Zhuang Zhongchen works as the deputy head and acting head of the Vocational and Technical Section of the Comprehensive Division of the Labor Bureau.

In modern enterprises and institutions, many sub-departments (section-level departments) still exist below the general departments. Since the sub-department level was later abolished, these sub-departments were roughly equivalent to the later section-level departments.

To put it simply, Zhuang Zhongchen was equivalent to the later deputy section chief, acting as the section chief.

After all, Zhuang Zhongchen is a college graduate and a level-nine engineer, which are quite valuable in this era. He would never waste his talents, so he still maintains a basic level of dignity.

As for the Vocational Skills Section, that's the department responsible for vocational skills assessment. In other words, employees who want to be assessed as level one to eight skilled workers all need to undergo examinations and reviews by this department. This is also one of the important tasks of the Labor Bureau.

Here's an explanation: The labor bureau is responsible for assessing workers' vocational skills; the personnel bureau is responsible for assessing technical personnel's professional titles. In this day and age, these are two completely different departments!

To put it simply—workers are under the jurisdiction of the Labor Bureau; cadres are under the jurisdiction of the Personnel Bureau. Technical cadres are cadres too!

Another important point to note: This is a national vocational skills assessment! The key point is—national! It's recognized nationwide.

In this era, many enterprises and institutions still have their own local policies, and they may have internal vocational skills assessments. Generally speaking, these assessments might be recognized within the local area or the organization, but they are not recognized outside. Only the National Vocational Skills Level Certificate is recognized!

For example, there are terms like "Level 8 cook" and "Level 6 cook." These are just internal company policies. They are not recognized by the state at all.

The state only recognizes chef level certificates, such as Level 3 Chef, Level 1 Chef, and Master Chef, etc.

Therefore, someone like He Yuzhu, earning only 37.5 yuan? Looking at that salary, it's clear he hasn't taken the chef's professional skills exam and doesn't have a chef's certificate. No matter how good He Yuzhu's cooking skills are, the state still doesn't recognize him as a professional chef.

For example, soldiers in the army's cook squad usually need to take an additional exam to obtain a national chef's certificate when they are discharged from the military.

That's the reason. Even the cook's certificate from the military isn't recognized; the state only accepts the National Vocational Skill Level Certificate issued by the Labor Bureau!

Of course, in 61, the national occupational ranking system had just been established, and there were no visible benefits, so it wasn't given much attention.

Finally, a section-level department was established, and an inexperienced young cadre and mediocre engineer was put in charge of the department as an interim manager.

Unlike later vocational schools like Lanxiang and Dongfang, which became renowned, Zhuang Zhongchen's vocational skills division was the higher-level government department that managed these schools. It certainly wielded considerable power.

I won't go into details here. This is a special situation under special circumstances of a special era.

It's quite interesting that a government department that will be very important in the future is now completely inconspicuous?

However, a problem arises—the vocational skills section only has a few people, and they don't know everything. They can't possibly be proficient in every technical trade, such as turning, milling, planing, and grinding, right? So how do we arrange the exams?

Generally, before the vocational skills level examination, the Vocational Skills Section of the Labor Bureau will select personnel from various units to form training courses and examination groups.

The instructors in the training courses are generally level seven senior technicians. The examiners in the examination group are generally level eight senior technicians.

Now you understand, right? Why are Level 8 technicians so prestigious? They're the examiners for all skilled workers! If you're only technically skilled, you might be famous within your own industry, but you can't break into other fields. But examiners are different; all skilled workers are their apprentices and disciples. Even their family members are considered. What if your child needs to take the exam someday? Would you be blind enough to offend the examiners?

Therefore, no one dared to offend the eighth-grade workers; they were almost all local celebrities.

Level 7 instructors are rather unlucky; at most, they can only be instructors for a certain group of trainees, and they can't break into the wider circle at all.

Therefore, in terms of status, there was a world of difference between a seventh-grade worker and an eighth-grade worker. This was evident even in the courtyard house, where Yi Zhonghai consistently held a superior position over Liu Haizhong.

That's how unreasonable I am: I have friends all over the world, and disciples and followers as numerous as dogs. You can't argue with me, you'll have to swallow your pride!

That said, what about Zhuang Zhongchen and his group's role? Undoubtedly, they couldn't simply leave the exam unattended. Therefore, they took on the role of proctors.

……

Today, Zhuang Zhongchen is serving as an invigilator for the graduation exam of the chef class at a commercial vocational school.

Because the vocational education system was not very mature at that time, it was generally divided into two training methods: one was the apprenticeship system. As everyone knows, when a new employee comes to the company, an experienced master will mentor the apprentice;

Another type is through school training. Skilled workers are trained by various technical schools and vocational schools.

It just so happens to be graduation season, so Zhuang Zhongchen and his classmates are taking the graduation exam. If they pass, just like when they take the exam after completing their apprenticeship, the state will issue them a vocational skills level certificate.

For this reason, Zhuang Zhongchen did not go to the Labor Bureau or the Commercial Vocational School, but went directly to the entrance of the Happiness Restaurant.

In the past few years, Happiness Hotel has undergone a public-private partnership and is now one of the state-owned hotels.

Since it's a chef's exam, it will definitely be held in a restaurant. Otherwise, the school wouldn't be able to provide so many cutting boards and stoves, right?

However, upon arriving at the restaurant entrance, a short man in his fifties greeted him with a smile: "Stock manipulation!"

Zhuang Zhongchen was secretly pleased. What a great nickname! It's a favorite among stock market investors!

This man, named Huang Ya, was also an employee of the Vocational and Technical Education Department. Today, he and Zhuang Zhongchen were both serving as proctors.

Huang Ya is nearing retirement age. He's a former employee of the old government, a level 23 clerk. So there's not much of a future for him; he's just coasting along at work.

The only redeeming quality: Huang Ya still showed Zhuang Zhongchen considerable respect. Or rather, he was quite tactful and avoided offending anyone. Unlike the other employees in the vocational skills section, he didn't harbor any secret contempt for that charlatan.

Zhuang Zhongchen smiled and nodded: "Old Huang, hasn't Sister Li arrived yet?"

"It should be soon, right? Hehe."