Guangdong province, an economic powerhouse in South China, will optimize vocational and technical education in an effort to carry out large-scale training in several fields, according to a senior official with the provincial human resources and social security authority.

"The training programs for skilled workers, housekeepers and Cantonese cuisine chefs will better meet employment needs for Guangdong's manufacturing and modern service industries," said Yang Hongshan, deputy director of the Guangdong Human Resources and Social Security Department.

According to Yang, 13 vocational schools have settled in a science and technology education area in the provincial capital, Guangzhou. Additionally, a vocational education city has been built in the province's northern city of Qingyuan, where 10 vocational and technical colleges are stationed.

"We will support the construction of technical colleges in Chaozhou, Shanwei and Jieyang in the eastern part of Guangdong, and will achieve the full coverage of vocational schools in 21 cities," Yang said during a news conference on Dec 29.

Ten high-level technical colleges will be built in the Pearl River Delta, a prosperous part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Guangdong, which has developed the largest vocational education system in the country, has 148 vocational schools and institutions with 634,000 students.

According to Yang, the province strives to promote training programs for Cantonese chefs, skilled workers and housekeepers as a way to boost employment and fight poverty as part of rural vitalization efforts and by November, more than 1.3 million trainees had found jobs in the province and an additional 7.2 million people have participated in training so far.

"Training has greatly helped boost laborer competitiveness in the job market," Yang said, adding that they are part of a pairing-off arrangement for poverty relief between Guangdong, Guizhou province, and the Tibet and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions.

About 360,000 people from Guizhou and Guangxi benefited from the training last year, finding new jobs in Guangdong or in their hometowns. After completing a three-month course in Cantonese pastries in Dongguan, Guangdong, early last year, Dadron plans to open a bakery in her hometown of Nyingchi in the Tibet autonomous region.

"Prior to the training, I had no knowledge of Cantonese food," she said, adding that learning to cook Cantonese style was not only about making food, but also a way of making a living and that the training program has helped her lay a solid foundation for her future business.

The Cantonese chef program, which was launched in 2018, has produced 336,000 trainees and significantly helped boost employment in rural areas, according to sources with the Guangdong Human Resources and Social Security Department.