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The Coordinated Development of
Secondary Vocational School Specialty
Clusters and Industry Clusters:
Citing Longgang No.2 Vocational and
Technical School of Shenzhen
as a Case Study
Shihao Wang, Tingting Huang
Longgang No.2 Vocational and Technical School of Shenzhen, Shen-
zhen 518000, Guangdong, China
Abstract: With the implementation of the state’s Plan of Construct-
ing High-Level Vocational Schools and Specialties with Chinese
Characteristics, the construction of specialty clusters has become a
hot topic. They are critical tools for improving the educational
quality of vocational schools by promoting vocational education
transformation, upgrading, and innovation. To maximize the effec-
tiveness of specialty cluster development in secondary vocational
school curriculum reform, we must first identify the rationale for
multi-agency involvement in the development of specialty clusters
and then formulate action plans. This article examines the defini-
tions and connotations of specialty clusters and discusses the con-
texts in which specialty clusters emerged. It examines strategies for
developing specialty clusters using Shenzhen’s Longgang No. 2
Vocational and Technical School as an example.
Science Insights Education Frontiers 2022; 11(2):1567-1577.
Doi: 10.15354/sief.22.or056
How to Cite: Wang, S., & Huang, T. (2022). The coordinated development of
secondary vocational school specialty clusters and industry clusters: Citing
Longgang No.2 Vocational and Technical School of Shenzhen as a case study.
Science Insights Education Frontiers, 11(2):1567-1577.
Keywords: Vocational Education, Specialty Cluster, Industry Cluster, Industrial
Chain, School-Enterprise Partnership, ICT
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1568
About Authors: Tingting Huang, Longgang No.2 Vocational and Technical School of Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518000,
Guangdong, China. E-mail: 383108547@qq.com
Correspondence to: Shihao Wang, Longgang No.2 Vocational and Technical School of Shenzhen, Shenzhen
518000, Guangdong, China. E-mail: 726780875@qq.com
Conflict of Interests: None
© 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved.
Creative Commons NonCommercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Crea-
tive Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided
the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher.
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1569
ECONDARY vocational education’s specialty clusters are a response to the
growing demand for well-rounded technical and skilled workers in the current
development of industry clusters and job clusters. Specialty cluster education is
a method of skill development based on an in-depth examination of technical and
skilled occupations within regional industry clusters. The strength of a specialty cluster
is in its ability to integrate pertinent specialties and then maximize their effectiveness as
a “cluster.” To advance the quality of vocational education and the development of
high-level specialty clusters, secondary vocational schools’ original curriculum compo-
nents, such as curriculum objectives, teaching teams, and practical training, must be
transformed. Using policies issued by the Ministry of Education as a guide, this paper
seeks to define the mechanism of coordination between the construction of specialty
clusters and the development of industry clusters, as well as the implications of this
mechanism. We examine the practice of developing specialty clusters using Longgang
No.2 Vocational and Technical School in Shenzhen (hereinafter referred to as
Longgang No.2 Vocational School) as a case study, attempting to provide useful guide-
lines for the scientific and efficient construction of high-level specialty clusters for oth-
er secondary vocational schools.
Definitions of “Industry Cluster” and “Specialty Clus-
ter”
The term “industry cluster” derives from Michael Porter’s industry cluster theory, a
Harvard Business School professor who specializes in competitive strategy and interna-
tional competition. It is a phenomenon in which a group of competitive enterprises in a
particular industry, along with their partners, specialized suppliers, service providers,
and related institutions, consolidate in a particular area (Zhao, 2011), with the goal of
increasing their market competitiveness through production factor optimization, re-
source sharing, and cost reduction. At a vocational college or school, a specialty cluster
is a collection of specialties comprised of one or more core specialties associated with
employment advantages and other related specialties that share a common professional
and technical background. Specialty clusters are classified into two types: (i) One is
defined from the school’s perspective. It integrates and shares teaching resources and
basic tangible facilities by combining a specialty of abundant resources with other relat-
ed specialties. (ii) The other is classified according to industry. It is a collection of spe-
cialized skills required by a particular industry. The classification’s guiding principle is
to maximize support for the target industry’s overall development. Various vocational
colleges and schools use this guideline to classify the specialties required by industrial
chains or industry clusters as specialty clusters (Mi & Guo, 2019). Both types share a
common objective: to contribute to societal and industrial development.
The Background of the Popularity of Specialty Clus-
ters
S
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1570
A New Phase of High-Quality Development in Voca-
tional Education in China
With the development of China’s educational system, public demand for elementary
education has evolved into a demand for higher education. Currently, the educational
levels of various vocational schools vary considerably, and there is still considerable
room for improvement. The purpose of vocational education is to improve the quality of
skilled labor, which necessitates the deliberate development of specialties. Secondary
vocational education in China began with the development of a market economy, but
the emphasis on “planning” and “supply” in the planned economy model has had such a
profound effect on vocational education that vocational education in China has for dec-
ades followed traditional ideas of specialty design and accumulated numerous problems.
For example, secondary vocational colleges and schools’ segmentation of specialties
limits their service capacities, making it difficult to obtain effective industry support for
specialty design. The rate at which new specialties are added, on the other hand, will
never keep up with changing market demand. On the other hand, the constant addition
of new specialties has resulted in the unnecessary consumption of secondary vocational
school educational resources and has even undermined the culture that developing a
specialty requires long-term commitments and efforts (Shen & Shi, 2011). These issues
become more pressing as China’s economic development model shifts, industrial trans-
formation and upgrading accelerates, and a market-oriented employment mechanism is
established. In this context, the establishment of specialty clusters becomes even more
critical in the reform of vocational education.
At present, China’s economy is transitioning from rapid growth to quality
growth, and the positive effects of industry clusters are becoming increasingly apparent,
resulting in a pressing need for high-quality technical and skilled labor. Not only has
internet technology been fully implemented in the service sector, but it is also permeat-
ing primary and secondary industries. The integration of traditional industries with new
intelligent technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and the internet of things
continuously generate new industrial growth points, new trades, and new types of jobs,
while also imposing new requirements on workers, such as the ability to handle in-
creased complexity. In comparison to individual specialties, specialty clusters are more
adaptable to market demand changes. As a result, secondary vocational schools should
prioritize collaboration between specialty clusters and industry clusters in order to in-
crease the adaptability and relevance of training and education (Yuan, 2007).
The Supporting Role of Shenzhen’s Information Tech-
nology Industry in the Creation of Specialty Clusters in
the ICT Industry
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1571
The municipal government of Shenzhen has set the goal of developing a world-class
new-generation information technology industry base for the city’s industrial develop-
ment. Furthermore, it launched implementation strategies for capitalizing on artificial
intelligence and fifth-generation mobile communication (5G) advancements, as well as
adhering to the new internet of everything trend. The information and communications
technology (ICT) industry in Shenzhen’s Longgang District is one of the largest in Asia.
Longgang District has been a global leader in research and development of 5G technol-
ogy, ranking first among China’s top 100 industrial districts. The Banxuegang Science
and Technology Center in Longgang (also known as the ICT industry center in the
Asia-Pacific region) is particularly noteworthy for its ideal and powerful industrial
chains. To ensure the continued development and talent supply of Longgang District,
the Ministry of Education and the provincial government of Guangdong encourage vo-
cational education colleges and schools to establish first-class specialty clusters aligned
with regional high-end industries and to connect their specialty planning to emerging
strategic industries and industry clusters worth 100 billion or more yuan. Longgang
No.2 Vocational School, located on Yuanshan Street in Longgang District, has naturally
become a target school for establishing high-quality specialty clusters. In September
2021, the Longgang District Local Government officially launched a plan to construct
high-level secondary vocational schools, which included Longgang No. 2 Vocational
School. Since then, by concentrating on cutting-edge technologies and the critical needs
of industrial chains, the school has garnered significant government support for the de-
velopment of ICT specialty clusters.
Criteria and connotations
Connotations of Specialty Clusters
(i) Market-driven: As industrialization progresses, businesses are increasingly inter-
ested in recruiting multi-skilled workers, as those with a single specialty are unable
to meet market demand.
(ii) Vocational education remains a vital component of education. The specialty cluster
is not arbitrary; it is determined based on the requirements of each vocational posi-
tion (Li, 2020).
(iii) Coordinative: A cluster’s specialties have a coordinated relationship. While each
specialty is self-contained, they function in concert with other specialties.
(iv) Systematic: A specialty cluster can be thought of as an organized system. It must
not only produce qualified, skilled workers for the world outside the system, but
also gather information from outside the cluster in order to optimize internal clus-
ter elements such as relationships between specialties, curriculum, training condi-
tions, and teaching team.
(v) Innovative: The transformation of traditional industries and the rapid growth of
emerging industries have resulted in the creation of new types of jobs; digitaliza-
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1572
tion has increased the requirements for a variety of occupations. As a result, sec-
ondary vocational schools must constantly innovate and adapt their specialty clus-
ters to changing industrial and environmental conditions. (Wu, 2019).
Criteria for Developing Specialty Clusters
(i) An outstanding teaching team. It is comprised of teaching research groups, top
researchers in each specialty, and qualified part-time faculty.
(ii) A state-of-the-art practice and training facility. The base’s facilities should be suf-
ficiently advanced to accommodate the training and teaching of the specialties.
(iii) Constant curriculum updates. Curriculum development for specialty clusters re-
quires enterprise involvement in order to reflect emerging technologies, techniques,
and industry standards.
(iv) Admissions criteria are in place for qualified students.
(v) Post-graduation survey to determine students’ employment status, employers’
evaluations of students, and students’ job satisfaction.
(vi) Extensive collaboration between schools and businesses. Collaboration between
schools, businesses, and industries results in significant collaboration projects and
patents (2019, Ren).
Strategies for the Development of Specialty Clusters
To Connect Specialty Cluster Construction with Socio-
economic Development
Prior to developing specialty clusters, it is critical to ascertain the relationship between
vocational education and regional industrial development. Shenzhen is currently accel-
erating the development of strategic emerging industries with the goal of establishing a
world-class industrial base for next-generation information technology. Longgang Dis-
trict is expected to develop a trillion-yuan ICT industry. Industrialization on a massive
scale generates enormous demand. According to the China Software Industry Associa-
tion’s Research on the Demand for Talents in China’s ICT Industry, released on August
21, 2018, the industry requires an additional 7.65 million practitioners and the demand
is still growing. Shenzhen’s advantages in terms of land use, capital, and talent ensure
the region’s rapid development in the ICT industry. Vocational colleges and schools
should seize this opportunity and invest heavily in the development of specialty clusters.
To Focus on the Needs of the Industrial Chain in De-
signing Specialty Clusters
The industrial chain is a term from industrial economics that refers to a chain relation-
ship that forms spontaneously between various industrial segments as a result of certain
technical and economic associations as well as spatial-temporal relationships. Compa-
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1573
nies in the industrial chain exist in response to market conditions of supply and demand,
perform a variety of tasks, and have varying demands for skilled labor. Secondary voca-
tional schools should determine the role of each specialty and the distinct skill require-
ments of different enterprises along the industrial chain when designing specialty clus-
ters. They should also analyze the trainees’ unique learning situations and recommend
appropriate specialties and curricula based on their future employers’ recruitment plans
(Xu & Zhu, 2022).
Along with providing students with fundamental vocational knowledge,
Longgang No.2 Vocational School frequently arranges for students to receive off-
campus training at Shenzhen Toulang E-Commerce Co., Ltd. Through highly intensive
practical training, students will gain a true sense of the corporate atmosphere within the
industrial chain, an understanding of how e-commerce related tasks are performed, and
a mastery of the various skills required in the e-commerce industry. Students gain an
understanding of their potential job positions in the job market, the requirements for
multi-skill application-oriented jobs, and the ability to make autonomous decisions
about their future development as a result of their practical operation experience (Zheng,
2020).
To be Forward-Looking and Flexible in Developing
Specialty Clusters
Apart from meeting the immediate needs of regional core industries, vocational schools
should anticipate future specialty cluster development. This means that specialty clus-
ters should focus on emerging industries that are still in their infancy but have the po-
tential to last at least two decades, if not longer. After twenty to thirty years of devel-
opment, an industry may experience a period of industrial recession or transformation.
As a result, the planner must account for the possibility that specialty clusters will need
to transform at some point in the future if the industry underlying the specialty clusters
experiences a recession. When this occurs, teaching teams responsible for declining
specialty clusters should be able to restructure their curricula. The cluster’s combination
of specialties should be adaptable to changes in demand as industrial development pro-
gresses. As long as it retains this adaptability, when an industry’s recession renders a
specialty cluster obsolete, the vocational school’s intellectual resources can rapidly
transform and generate a new specialty cluster (Zhou, 2001).
Experts from colleges and universities, as well as industry leaders, have aided
in the specialization planning of Longgang No. 2 Vocational School, ensuring that it is
aligned with the needs of modern enterprises in Shenzhen. At the school’s inception,
nine popular specialties were offered: computer network technology, exhibition service
and management, animation and game production, e-commerce, accounting, financial
services, community affairs administration, high-star hotel management, and optometry
and eyeglasses. In 2020, internet of things application technology was added to the spe-
cialty range (Zheng, 2020). Longgang No. 2 Vocational School demonstrates foresight
and adaptability in specialty settings, ensuring students’ employment success.
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1574
To Develop High-level Human Resources and Recruit Teachers with Outstanding Pro-
fessional Background
Secondary vocational schools should recruit teachers with extensive profes-
sional knowledge, innovative teaching strategies, and extensive scientific research expe-
rience to serve as leaders in developing specialty clusters. Moreover, to better serve
regional economic development, vocational schools should recruit senior executives
with extensive management experience and a strong sense of reform and innovation
from influential leading enterprises in the information and communications technology
industry; they can integrate their expertise in the high-end industry into the school’s
curriculum development and guide the future development of specialty clusters (Wu,
2019). Shenzhen Toulang E-commerce Co., Ltd. serves as the Longgang No. 2 Voca-
tional School’s off-campus training base. It has sent a professional training team to the
school to implement a pertinent training plan based on current e-commerce industry
demand (Zheng, 2020).
To Upgrade Basic Training Equipment and Facilities for Specialty Clusters
To connect specialties with industry and supply the industry with skilled labor, voca-
tional schools should have training devices that function similarly to the industry’s ac-
tual production equipment. Due to the constant updating of technologies and equipment
in national or local strategic industries, the school should invest sufficient funds in
teaching equipment renewal to keep up with the rate of technological advancement. If
current training is conducted using obsolete equipment, the school will be unable to
produce qualified skilled workers for future industrial development.
Longgang No. 2 Vocational School’s newly constructed training building con-
tains 57 classrooms. Additionally, the hotel’s training room was converted from the
former canteen. Each specialty is assigned four to eleven training classrooms. Besides,
the school has constructed an art design training room, a 3D printing training room, and
a design display training room; virtual reality technology is being implemented in the
specialty of community affairs administration. The comprehensive training facilities
each have their own distinct characteristics and functions, laying the groundwork for the
development of high-quality specialty clusters.
To Develop Unique Specialty Clusters Different from
those of other Schools
Since the country began promoting the development of vocational colleges and schools
in 2019, high-level schools and clusters of high-level specialization have sprouted up
throughout the country. In Shenzhen City alone, there are two vocational colleges with
four specialty clusters and eight secondary vocational schools with 12 specialty clusters;
the numbers continue to grow. To avoid oversupply and waste of educational resources
in a particular specialty cluster, vocational schools should first investigate established
specialty clusters at other schools before embarking on developing their own differenti-
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1575
ated ones. The differentiation may be reflected in the various industries they serve or in
the various links in the industrial chain through which they operate.
Problems with the Current Coordination between
Specialty Clusters and Industry Clusters
Almost all vocational colleges and schools have some form of school-business partner-
ship. While some schools have achieved the desired results, the majority have failed to
establish a long-term mechanism for close collaboration with businesses. The primary
reason for this is the latter’s reluctance to participate fully in the partnership. In a mar-
ket-oriented economy, enterprises are profit-driven entities; the majority of them view
involvement in vocational education as a source of direct or indirect financial loss. (i)
School-enterprise collaboration increases their operational costs, as they must cover all
living expenses for students trained in their companies, and students are typically ineffi-
cient workers who waste raw materials when operational errors occur. (ii) School-
enterprise collaboration introduces significant risks. In the event of an accident caused
by a student’s error, the enterprise is liable for the resulting costs, including medical
expenses and compensation, and its goodwill may be harmed. Additionally, without
policy incentives, businesses are disincentivized from directly engaging in vocational
education. They have not integrated school-business collaboration into their value chain.
As a result, the current model of school-business collaboration has not yet been fully
integrated into the development of businesses. Promoting school-business collaboration
is primarily a temporary and ad hoc endeavor on the part of schools and departments of
education. There is no coordinated bilateral action plan in place (Zhang, 2012). To ac-
complish the goal of deep school-enterprise collaboration, we propose that joint-stock
partnerships be encouraged to align both parties’ interests. A board of directors shall be
established in proportion to the assets invested by schools and enterprises in order to
manage and operate the schools cooperatively. Local educational authorities must de-
velop regulations governing school-business collaboration, defining the parties’ rights
and obligations and prescribing evaluation and incentive mechanisms (Hong, 2010).
Conclusions
Among the ten specialties offered by Longgang No.2 Vocational School, finance and
trade can be classified as e-commerce, accounting, and financial services. The three-
specialty cluster has already been recognized by Shenzhen educational authorities as a
high-level specialty cluster. Its target industry is Shenzhen’s modern service sector.
Moreover, the school intends to establish an electronic-information cluster based on the
two established specialties of computer network technology and internet of things ap-
plication technology for the following reasons: (i) At present, ICT is a growing industry
that encompasses the hardware, software, and equipment associated with IT and tele-
communications. It has a long industrial chain, involves numerous enterprises and job
clusters, and can generate a large number of technical positions suitable for secondary
Wang & Huang. (China). Secondary Vocational School Clusters.
SIEF, Vol.11, No.2, 2022 1576
vocational students. (ii) The Longgang District is the center of the ICT industry, provid-
ing a unique opportunity to engage enterprises in the development of specialty clusters.
And (iii) the school’s existing equipment and teaching resources provide adequate sup-
port for the development of a cluster of this type.
It is necessary to emphasize the importance of closely coordinating the devel-
opment of secondary vocational school specialty clusters with the development of in-
dustry clusters. Secondary vocational schools can truly achieve high-quality education
and contribute to regional economic and social development by establishing high-level
specialty clusters with strong industrial support and following the industrial chain’s de-
velopment trend.
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Received: 28 February 2022
Revised: 18 March 2022
Accepted: 06 April 2022