Courtyard House: I Rely on Time-Space Trade to Build a Nation

Zhao Ping'an had just finished approving the expansion plan for the Dalian Shipyard, and then looked at the pile of documents on his desk.

Aircraft carriers, submarines, missiles, new engines, new fighter jets... every project is marked with "urgent need for talent."

Each document is followed by a string of numbers: how many engineers, how many technicians, how many skilled workers are needed.

He flipped through the documents, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

Even setting aside the era of college students delivering food,

That's what we'd have in 2011: six million college graduates and over one hundred million skilled workers. But what about now?

He picked up a pen and wrote down a string of numbers on the paper.

721工人学校1952年培养技术工人50万，1955年培养150万，按计划完成了扩招和人才培养。

It seems like a lot, but how many factories and mines, how many construction sites, and how many projects across the country are vying for talent?

The situation is even worse for college students.

Even with a two-fold increase in recruitment, it's still not enough. Just look at the newly established aircraft carrier project—it needs hundreds of engineers per project, the missile project needs thousands, the engine project needs hundreds…

In total, there is a shortage of at least 5,000 senior R&D personnel.

Five thousand.

Even if I brought back the entire Northwest, it wouldn't be enough.

Not to mention, the research there focuses on cutting-edge technologies that are urgently needed right now.

Zhao Pingan put down his pen and sighed. He walked to the map of China hanging on the wall.

The industrial bases of Northeast China, the agricultural reclamation corps of Northwest China, the railway network of North China, and the new factories being planned in Southwest China...

Every point needs people, and every project is crying out for "manpower shortage." In fact, according to the plan, there shouldn't be such a shortage of people, but who can blame us when workers and farmers across the country have just started to enjoy "good days" and are full of enthusiasm? All plans are being completed ahead of schedule or at an accelerated pace, and that's why a talent gap has appeared.

Zhao Ping'an couldn't help but think back to that magical era of later years.

On one hand, the whole world is worried about the lack of college students.

In an era when the US military recruitment office even required college students from enemy countries to join the US Army,

Just because this college student from an enemy country could teach the two-headed ogre math,

It allows them to pass the same test paper within two weeks.

Meanwhile, in Japan, tens of millions of university students graduate each year, and some of them become unemployed after graduation, forced to deliver food. There are even graduate students doing food delivery.

It even made the news because people felt that a graduate student shouldn't be delivering food; their education level didn't justify such a position...

Both East and West universities have become the kind of people the other envies.

A continuous stream of college students,

A college graduate can find a decent job.

"If I were given a year to graduate from university, I could have brought the Republic into the Four Modernizations five years earlier."

Zhao Ping'an gave a wry smile, pulled himself out of his thoughts, walked back to his desk, picked up his pen, and began to continue writing the report.

The report is titled "Opinions on Accelerating the Training of Senior R&D Talents and Skilled Technical Workers".

Article 1, Cultivation of University Students.

Public lectures. Bringing together top experts, with one person lecturing to hundreds or thousands of listeners.

Lecture notes were printed and distributed, lectures were broadcast, and teaching trips were conducted.

The system contains a complete set of teaching materials and lesson plans from 2016, which is more advanced than those from any other country.

The textbook is not the problem; the problem is delivering the lessons.

Graduates are retained by the university. Outstanding graduates are directly retained to teach, and will begin their positions after a short period of training.

Learn while teaching to quickly replenish the teaching staff.

We've already done that, but it's far from enough; we need to expand the scale again.

The university is expanding its enrollment in night school programs and establishing more learning centers.

Branch schools were set up in major factories, mines, and construction sites, where workers worked during the day and attended classes at night, graduating in two to four years.

Standardized teaching materials obtained through the system guarantee quality.

In 1955, the Red Empire had 64.5 students studying at night universities and correspondence schools; we could have more.

Then came the newly built universities.

Key personnel were transferred from coastal universities to build new campuses in Xi'an, Chengdu, and Lanzhou.

In coordination with the development of Northwest China and the Third Front construction, local talent should be cultivated.

Twenty new engineering colleges will be established, each with 4,000 students, increasing the total number of students by 80,000.

Finally, targeted training.

Outstanding students are selected from universities across the country and concentrated in key universities.

Priority will be given to key projects such as aircraft carriers and missiles, and graduates will be directly assigned to project teams.

The ultimate goal was to achieve, by 1958, more than 150 million college graduates annually.

Article 2, Training of skilled workers.

Technical schools in factories and mines. All large factories and mines must run technical schools, and medium-sized enterprises should jointly run schools.

The program lasts one to three years, combining theory with practical training.

Two thousand large and medium-sized enterprises nationwide each train five hundred to one thousand people annually.

That would amount to one to two million.

Apprenticeship system. Experienced trainees mentor new trainees, with a three-year apprenticeship period.

Establish assessment standards and issue certificates to qualified candidates. Millions of apprentices can follow this path.

Workers' night school. Existing workers receive training in batches to improve their skill levels.

They work during the day and attend classes at night, training millions of people every year.

Construction workers. They work in construction, railways, power, water conservancy, and bridges, learning on the job and mentoring newcomers.

Large-scale engineering projects are the best form of training.

The ultimate goal is to train 5 million skilled workers annually; this plan aims to achieve this within two years.

After Zhao Ping'an finished writing the last stroke, he put down his pen and looked at it again from the beginning.

150 million college students and 500 million skilled workers every year—that seems like a lot.

But he knew this was just the beginning.

In 2011, there were 608 million college graduates, 1.2 million skilled workers, and 3117 million highly skilled personnel.

To reach that level, it requires continuous training for twenty or thirty years, or even a generation.

Zhao Pingan folded the report and put it into his briefcase.

The report was delivered to the leader's office early the next morning.

The approval came quickly: Agreed.