Wang Haidong, an employee at Wuxi Murata Electronics, said it’s really a surprise that she was able to be promoted from the frontline to an administration post.

The transfer was not possible without an educational initiative led by the trade union. After getting admitted by China University of Mining and Technology in 2016, she received subsidies including 500 yuan from the provincial trade union federation, 2,000 yuan from trade union in Wuxi, and a fee concession of 1000 yuan by the university. She herself spent about 1,000 yuan for the tuition.

Zhu Jinsong, deputy chairman of the provincial trade union federation, said the lack of education and the shortage of skills are the biggest difficulties for many employees to move up the career ladder. Trade unions should help address these challenges that directly affect their work performance evaluation and benefits.

The Ministry of Education and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions jointly launched the educational initiative in 2016. The initiative was highlighted as one of 26 key tasks supervised by members of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jiangsu Province to ensure the progress. Several departments have collaborated closely to improve the training and skills of workers in line with the province’s needs, such as from the manufacturing sector.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Jiangsu aims to help a total of 250,000 workers to benefit from the initiative.