Vocational College to Teach Mine Safety Technicians

Vocational college to teach mine safety technicians

CHANGSHA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) — A vocational college offering specialized training for safety technicians will begin to recruit students this autumn in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan Province.

As the first of its kind in China, the Hunan Safety Vocational Technology College is hoping to ease a serious shortage of safety workers, which has been cited as a contributing cause of frequent coal mine accidents in recent years.

Statistics show that only 8 percent of graduates who study mining actually choose to work in coal mines. They consider the pay too low, the risks too high and working conditions too harsh. China’s post secondary schools graduate about 10,000 students from mining courses but that number is on the decline.

The new college “will be oriented to produce technicians working in industries like mining and fireworks,” said Zhang Pingyuan, official with the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).

Zhang noted favorable policies are being implemented to attract students and coal mines are also being urged to increase pay for positions responsible for work safety.

With ever-decreasing students studying mining many colleges have stopped offering mining-related majors replacing them with computer or foreign language courses.

“Not a single college student who majored in mining has come here since 2000,” said Tan Xiaoxiang, general manager of the Lianshao Mining Group, one of the biggest mining enterprises in the province. “They simply don’t want to work here.”

Last year, more than 90 percent of the coal mine accidents in Hunan province are caused by incorrect operation, said Yan Yinchu, vice director of Hunan Administration of Coal Mine Safety.

The Hunan Safety Vocational Technology College received its recruitment license last November. It is co-sponsored by SAWS and the Hunan provincial government.