Despite repeated orders from the education department, some vocational schools still export student workers to enterprises or labor intermediaries. The vocational school internship, originally intended to improve the skills of vocational school students and closely integrate vocational school majors with industry, has evolved into a “head selling” transaction to provide cheap labor to assembly line factories in a few places.
Practice “selling heads” and the school earns a commission
A 17-year-old student in a vocational college in Yunnan has recently attracted social attention. The family said: “Xiao Yang, a student of class 6 of 2019 five-year nursing, was arranged by the school to work in the enterprise in the name of internship. Under the high-intensity labor of 12 hours a day, he was tired to get sick and was not allowed to ask for leave for treatment. Finally, he died because he couldn’t get medical treatment in time.
”More than 300 nursing students from a vocational and technical school in a central province were assigned to multiple workshops to process and test electronic components. Many students are arranged to work at night from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next day. The school promised that “the monthly internship salary starts from 2000 yuan”, but the monthly salary of employees in the same type of positions in the factory can reach four or five thousand yuan. Students suspect that the school has “made a difference” in the middle. A classmate was in a trance due to long working hours. He was stabbed in the palm by a drill bit on the assembly line and was sent to hospital for two stitches.
Similar experiences of vocational school students’ internship are not uncommon. “When I was a junior, the school asked students to go to the factory assembly line for night shift during the winter vacation. They were responsible for the assembly of electronic components. They worked 12 hours a day and had a rest for 13 days. After working for 2 months, they lost more than 20 kilograms.” A higher vocational student majoring in accounting told reporters, “the work done has nothing to do with accounting. If you don’t go, there will be no credits and you won’t be allowed to graduate.”
Behind the chaos of vocational school practice is interest. A person in charge of a labor agency revealed that low student wages have become a cash cow for some vocational schools and labor companies to earn “Capitation fees”. The factory is short of people. The labor company is quoted 25 yuan for one hour per person. When the labor service finds the relevant personnel of the school, the school is given 22 yuan for one hour per person. The school is given 15 yuan for students, and the price difference of 7 yuan is the Commission. If the school organizes 300 people to work for one month and 10 hours a day, the school can deduct 630000 yuan.
Li Bin, a sociology professor at Central South University, believes that interest driven internships not only hurt students’ legitimate rights and interests, but also distort the normal talent training mechanism. We should put an end to the unhealthy trend of vocational schools acting as contractors and “selling” students into factories.
Practice chaos reflects regulatory loopholes
As early as 2016, the regulations on the administration of student internship in vocational schools had been issued. At the end of last year, the Ministry of education and other ministries and commissions revised the regulation to comprehensively strengthen the management of students’ on-the-job internship, but some vocational schools still have on-the-job internship chaos.
——Schools, labor companies and internship units colluded to evade supervision.
According to the regulations, before participating in the internship, students should sign a tripartite internship agreement, with the text “one for each party”. However, some students revealed that some schools did not sign contracts at all, or cheated students into entering the factory with a tripartite agreement, and then forced students to sign a real labor export contract with the labor company. The contents of several contracts were different and contradictory. After signing the contract, the school also requires students to hand in the contract and ID card. They can’t carry mobile phones at work. It’s difficult for students to save evidence and lose the condition of “escape”.
——”You can’t graduate without Internship”. Students have weak awareness of safeguarding their rights and have many scruples.
Some students reported that although they generally resisted this assembly line internship, they believed that the school arrangement was in line with the policy. Especially under the threat of “not graduating without Internship”, most students can only accept it. After the internship, students dare not report afterwards in order to ensure the smooth graduation.
——The complaint channel is not smooth and the supervision is not effective.
Some students admitted that they wanted to report jointly, but they were unable to find a reflection channel. Some reports often end up without core evidence for key facts such as overtime internship.
——The transfer of interests is hidden and difficult to investigate and deal with in other places.
In order to evade supervision, the transfer of interests between schools, labor intermediaries and employers is often carried out by signing hidden contracts. When the relevant departments investigate, all parties refuse to recognize the exchange of interests, and the transfer of interests is difficult to identify. At the same time, most vocational school internships are located in two places, across education and human resources and social security departments. It is difficult to form a joint force in the investigation.
——Low illegal cost and absence of accountability system.
The accountability of illegal schools and internship units in the regulations is not clear. Due to the absence of legal liability, legal obligations and prohibitive provisions are in vain, which greatly reduces the implementation effect.
Explore the blacklist system of Vocational Schools
Li Bin believes that the supervision of the whole process of internship in vocational schools should be strengthened. For example, before the internship, the vocational school is required to report the internship plan, implement the approval system, issue an informed notice to students and parents, standardize the system, and clearly inform the way of complaint reporting. During the internship, investigate and verify the enterprises involved and interns at any time, and carry out patrol and inspection. After the internship, record the tripartite agreement and salary payment for random inspection and verification.
Xiongbingqi, President of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, believes that in order to eradicate the interest chain of vocational school internship chaos, parents’ right to know and students’ right to choose must be met. For internship positions, students can independently choose and sign internship contracts according to their major, internship objectives and employment tendency.
In the final analysis, the chaos of vocational school practice is the problem of vocational school management. Experts suggest that we should strictly enforce discipline and accountability, and give corresponding sanctions and penalties to the school and relevant responsible persons according to the seriousness of internship chaos and violations of laws and regulations, until their school running qualification is revoked. If they are suspected of a crime, they should also be investigated for criminal responsibility. At the same time, we will explore the establishment of a blacklist system for vocational schools, and include vocational schools with illegal internships in the blacklist, which will be publicized during enrollment every year.
Li Bin pointed out that since most schools currently choose to practice in other places, and the practice management involves multiple departments of education and human resources and social security, it is urgent to integrate cross regional and cross departmental supervision forces.