Industrial policy for skills: Institutional innovation in China’s vocational education — evidence from the electric vehicle sector

This study interrogates the institutional features of China’s skill formation system. Specifically, it examines the extent to which, and how, China’s industrial policy strategically reconstructs the vocational education system. The analysis focuses on emerging governance institution-building in the electric vehicle (EV) sector and on vocational education’s response to industrial policy, which has, in this context, responded rapidly and supplied skilled workers to a growing industry in a developing economy. Twenty face-to-face interviews were conducted with ministerial-, provincial-, and municipal-level officials, as well as administrative staff from higher vocational colleges who participated in or witnessed the decision-making and implementation of EV industrial policy–related programmes between 2012 and 2024. A theory-building process-tracing approach is employed to analyse interview and documentary data, allowing for a detailed examination of institutional change. The findings indicate that China’s vocational education policy has developed an increasingly comprehensive set of institutions, which provides viable pathways for local actors—such as local governments and vocational colleges—to act flexibly in accordance with national policy objectives. This pattern reflects a form of partial decentralisation in China’s vocational education policymaking. The coordination mechanism identified in this study comprises three main components: information transmission with or without incentives, cross-departmental liaison, and intra-departmental institution-building. The findings also confirm a shift away from a previously rigid, hierarchical approach to vocational education policy planning. This emerging approach appears to enhance the responsiveness of vocational schools to the demand for skilled labour in the EV sector. The article argues that the Chinese case contributes to international debates on VET governance by showing how an industrial-policy-driven approach can foster skill formation not only by addressing supply and demand, but also by embedding vocational education more directly within broader strategies of economic transformation.