Exploration and Practice of Cultivation Pathway of Agricultural Professionals under the Background of Rural Revitalization

Yingjun ZHOU, Jianfeng XIAO, Junhong ZHONG

Huizhou Engineering Vocational College, Huizhou 516023, China

Abstract The comprehensive implementation of the rural revitalization strategy puts forward new requirements for agricultural professionals. In the context of rural revitalization, local vocational colleges should adjust their cultivation models for agricultural professionals in accordance with industrial development, and propose effective cultivation paths from four aspects: building a reasonable and scientific professional structure system, optimizing the construction of teaching staff, strengthening the construction of school-enterprise platforms, and consolidating the "three rural" sentiment, in order to better serve the local economy, strive to cultivate more rural revitalization talents for society, and ensure the maximum adaptation to the development requirements of China’s new rural construction.

Key words Rural revitalization, Agriculture related majors, Talent cultivation, Pathway

1 Introduction

The report of the 20thNational Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it should comprehensively promote rural revitalization. It should adhere to the priority of agricultural and rural development, consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation, accelerate the construction of an agricultural power, and firmly promote the revitalization of rural industries, talents, culture, ecology, and organizations. Rural revitalization requires talents. Under the background of comprehensively implementing the rural revitalization strategy, vocational colleges are an important carrier for cultivating talents for rural revitalization, and the cultivation of agricultural professionals is the intellectual support for the construction of a new countryside. Therefore, it is of great significance for the current strategy of vocational education to assist rural revitalization by deeply analyzing the problems in the cultivation of agricultural professionals in vocational colleges and proposing effective ways for talent cultivation to serve rural revitalization.

2 Functional orientation of local vocational colleges in rural revitalization and construction

Local vocational colleges are generally located at the grass-roots level, with the geographical advantages of setting up the specialties required for the rural revitalization strategy and cultivating high-quality agricultural technical talents. They are an important carrier for implementing rural revitalization. Additionally, local vocational colleges make full use of their professional characteristics and combine the actual development of local agriculture to cultivate a group of talents who "love , cherish, serve and work for agriculture", and take the initiative to serve the local rural revitalization strategy. Finally, local vocational colleges can deeply connect with local enterprises, which could not only have rich internship and training bases, but also hire enterprise experts with rich practical experience as part-time teachers and internship guidance teachers nearby. It is conducive to the development of practical activities such as internship and training for students, as well as the cultivation of teachers’ "dual qualification"[1]. Local vocational colleges have unique advantages in terms of their positioning, serving the local economy, integrating industry and education, as well as in scientific fields, majors, structure of personnel, and national macro policies. Therefore, it is necessary to give full play to the role of local vocational colleges, actively serve the rural revitalization strategy, and cultivate the necessary talents for rural revitalization[2].

3 Problems in the cultivation of agricultural professionals in vocational colleges under the background of rural revitalization

3.1 Low matching between trained talents and rural revitalization needsVocational colleges are a new force that provides talent guarantee, intellectual support, and technical support for the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. With the in-depth implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, new requirements have been put forward for vocational colleges in terms of talent cultivation quality, professional construction, construction of teaching staff, and social services. Talent cultivation should match the development of major local industries, which is an important direction for talent cultivation in vocational colleges. However, the willingness of graduates cultivated by vocational colleges to take root in rural construction is not strong enough. In addition, the working environment of agriculture-related majors is relatively harsh compared to other jobs, and most of them may face the sun and rain. Students generally have to endure hardship and loneliness to engage in agriculture-related work for a long time, which leads to a low matching rate of students majoring in employment and a serious loss of employment. Finally, under the development of some emerging industries and the influence of social media, candidates are more willing to choose some popular and relaxed majors than traditional agriculture-related majors, which forces many agriculture-related majors to have no source of students. The agricultural majors without student source guarantee have caused the focus of discipline development in local vocational colleges to deviate, and there may also be a mismatch between the professional settings and the layout of local agricultural industries, leading to the inability of graduates from agricultural majors in local vocational colleges to better serve the rural revitalization strategy.

3.2 Practical education failing to achieve effective results

Implementing the rural revitalization strategy requires talent support, as well as a group of leaders with solid theoretical knowledge and rich practical experience, who can transform technology and experience into "job credentials" for new rural builders. Most of the employment experience of agricultural teachers in local vocational colleges is from school to school, and their practical experience in production in modern agricultural enterprises is less, and the actual production experience shared with students is limited. As a result, students have insufficient understanding of the current new forms of agricultural development and scientific and technological achievements in professional fields, leading to a lack of innovative ability of graduates and a weak ability to solve practical problems.

3.3 Backward education mechanism of school-enterprise linkageThe implementation of the rural revitalization strategy requires the concerted efforts of all parties, and there cannot be the idea of "waiting, relying, and asking". Currently, there are still problems that students trained in vocational colleges cannot find corresponding jobs, and enterprises cannot recruit corresponding talents. It indicates that there is a problem of poor communication between schools and enterprises. Schools have not actively engaged with enterprises to understand market demand, especially modern agricultural enterprises no longer only require technical and skilled talents, but also complex talents with multiple abilities such as management, economy, and technical skills. This has led to a single employment position for graduates majoring in agriculture, with wages and salaries only remaining to meet food and clothing requirements, and fewer people stay in rural areas for employment.

3.4 Inadequate excavation of traditional farming culture

Excellent traditional farming culture is the cultural foundation that affects production and lifestyle. To promote the revitalization of rural culture, it is necessary to deeply explore the ideological concerns, humanistic spirit, and moral norms contained in excellent traditional farming culture[3]. The national qualities of the hard working people are an important component of China’s excellent traditional agricultural culture, as well as an important content of the campus culture of agricultural majors. It is the source of creating campus culture for agricultural majors in local vocational colleges by excavating, promoting, and innovating excellent traditional agricultural culture. However, local vocational colleges are not aware of this farming culture, which can greatly promote the ideological understanding of agriculture and rural revitalization among students majoring in agriculture, resulting in students being unable to truly improve their understanding of modern agriculture and establish a deep sense of "three rural" sentiments.

4 Cultivation path of agricultural professionals in vocational colleges under the background of rural revitalization

4.1 Establishing a reasonable and scientific professional structure system based on practical needsAgricultural vocational colleges should follow the principles of rationality, feasibility, characteristics, and advancement when setting up majors[4]. Taking Huizhou City as an example, agricultural vocational colleges should be oriented towards the needs of modern agriculture, take rural revitalization as their own responsibility, combine the practicality of their specialties with the construction of "3+7" industrial parks, and cultivate professional talents suitable for the regional development of Huizhou in specialty setting. In terms of specialty construction, it is possible to add specialties that match the development of modern agriculture, such as rural e-commerce, ecological agriculture, agricultural product processing, leisure agriculture,etc., and gradually build agriculture-related professional clusters that match the development of agricultural economy to better serve the rural revitalization industry chain.

4.2 Integrating the existing resources and optimizing the construction of teaching staffTeachers of agricultural majors in vocational colleges have long been rooted in front-line teaching and have rich theoretical knowledge, but the practical problems they face in agricultural production technology and production environment are still slightly insufficient. The construction of the teaching staff can be further promoted by combining internal training with external introduction. Internal training refers to focusing on creating conditions to encourage school teachers to participate in part-time training and teaching in agricultural enterprises, constantly updating teaching concepts and practical knowledge. It is not necessary to keep frontline teaching workers busy with administrative, conference, and other work unrelated to teaching every day for a long time. It is necessary to liberate them, and directly participate in frontline production and practical activities in agricultural enterprises by participating in internal training, winter and summer practices, and other methods. In particular, taking the rural science and technology commissioner project as a starting point, it should cooperate with experts and technical experts from other units to establish pastoral expert services, sink into field frontline services, and improve the practical skills and experience of young teachers. "External introduction" refers to the direct introduction of "local experts" and "field scholars" who are active in the production line as part-time teachers to enrich the teaching team. It can not only guide students in internship and training courses[5], but also establish a teacher team based on the actual situation of the profession, close academic exchanges between the two types of teachers, jointly apply for provincial and municipal science and technology projects, improve the teaching level of the agricultural professional teacher team, and consolidate the intellectual support for rural revitalization.

4.3 Actively expanding and strengthening the construction of school-enterprise platformsVocational colleges should give full play to their geographical advantages, establish deep cooperative relationships with their local counterparts, and establish off-school internship and training bases through modern apprenticeship training modes such as "order class" and "title class", which is conducive to students carrying out internship and training activities and cultivating corresponding technical and skilled personnel. It should smooth the flow of personnel between schools and enterprises, and establish a sharing mechanism for teachers and textbooks. They jointly develop courses, formulate talent cultivation plans, gradually build a part-time teacher pool and a training mechanism for vocational college teachers in enterprises, and accurately cultivate professional talents. It should accelerate the construction of a collaborative development mechanism for the integration of industry and education in vocational education, achieve the organic connection of the education chain, talent chain, industrial chain, and innovation chain, and build an integrated education system, so that all parties can work together to support high-quality development of rural revitalization.

4.4 Improving students’ literacy and deeply cultivating the feelings of agriculture, rural areas and farmersWith the development of modern agriculture, rural revitalization requires not only specialized personnel who master production technology, but also a large number of complex talents who understand planting, aquaculture, the Internet of Things, agricultural e-commerce, and business management. This requires that when conducting talent cultivation, students should be guided to "understand agriculture, love rural areas, and love farmers" in a planned and hierarchical manner. It should permeate the ideological and political aspects of the curriculum in an all-round and multi-angle manner. In particular, during the teaching process of agricultural majors, ideological and political education should be carried out, including required courses, elective courses, basic courses, and professional courses. It is necessary to dig into typical cases of agricultural craftsmen, strengthen education on the values of understanding and loving agriculture, and actively participate in the construction of a modern new countryside with the deepest feelings of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, so that graduates of agricultural majors can go, use, and stay in the countryside.

Under the background of rural revitalization, the establishment of the cultivation path for agricultural professionals in vocational colleges is to meet the needs of modern agricultural development, contributes to rural revitalization, and promotes local economic development.