“Talents are the first element of industrial development and technological innovation. High-quality industrial development must be matched with high-quality talents. ”Recently, at the first industrial talent innovation and development forum hosted by the Talent Exchange Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and a series of reports on talent demand forecasting in key fields of industry and information technology, the Institute of Public Management and Human Resources, Development Research Center of the State Council Director Li Jianwei especially emphasized the important role of talents in the development of industry and information industry. The development of the industry is inseparable from the support of a high-quality talent team. Only with strong talents can the manufacturing industry be strong and the information industry can flourish. The golden age of the development of industry and information industry has quietly begun. How can my country solve the problem of the supply and demand of talents in the field of industry and information technology?

The market needs more compound talents

At this stage, the digital economy is changing with each passing day, and the wave of digitalization is surging. The emergence of new-generation information technologies such as 5G, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain has caused profound changes in traditional manufacturing models. The demand for talents in far-reaching emerging markets such as intelligent networked vehicles and industrial Internet is more important than ever. And urgency.

Talents are the key element and primary driving force for the transformation and upgrading of industry and information industry. What kind of leading talents are needed for the development of domestic industries? Li Xuelin, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Talent Exchange Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out at the meeting that my country’s industry and information industry has a particularly strong demand for cross-professional, cross-disciplinary, and cross-industry talents, and the development of key industries requires more high-tech Technical talents.

Currently, my country's automobile industry is transforming towards electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing. Li Xuelin said that in the field of intelligent networked vehicles, only R&D talents are distributed in system design/integration, environment awareness, decision control, network communication, big data, cloud-based platforms, artificial intelligence, security technology, map positioning, standards and regulations. In this technical field, there is an urgent need for relevant talents who are familiar with various technologies such as computers, electronic information, vehicle engineering, automation, and machinery.

In terms of manufacturing, at present, my country’s traditional manufacturing industry is accelerating its transformation and upgrading in the direction of networking and intelligence, and the new generation of information technology and manufacturing technology have begun to integrate deeply. Li Xuelin said that the professional knowledge of talents in the intelligent manufacturing industry covers multiple professional directions such as mechanical engineering, manufacturing technology, software and computer, and also involves more than a dozen technical fields. It can be seen that if the domestic industry represented by intelligent manufacturing is to achieve further development, it is particularly critical to have more interdisciplinary talents.

In the context of the continuous expansion of the industrial scale in the high-tech field and the expanding application scenarios, China will inevitably need more leading talents in the high-tech field to promote industrial development. Li Xuelin pointed out that at present, the compound growth rate of the new generation of information technology such as industrial Internet, artificial intelligence, and blockchain has reached more than 30%. The growth rate of industrial scale is accelerating, and the driving effect of industrial integration is obvious. Take the industrial Internet field as an example. In 2020, the overall output value of my country's industrial Internet will be about 3.1 trillion yuan, a real increase of 47.9% year-on-year, of which the core industry output value will be 652 billion yuan, and the economic impact of integration will reach 2.49 trillion yuan. . In the field of blockchain, as of December 2020, there are nearly 1,005 blockchain companies in my country, making it one of the largest single markets in the world, and the demand for talents in related industries is growing.

The problem of talent supply needs to be solved urgently

Currently, the demand for talents in industry and information industry has developed to a stage of high attention. Industry experts have said that insufficient supply of talents in the field of industry and information technology is the primary problem that urgently needs to be broken through in the development of related industries in my country.

In the key software field, "can't find" "can't recruit" and "can't retain" are the biggest problems facing talent demand. Pu Songtao, director of the Software Research Office of the Institute of Information Technology and Software Industry, China Electronics Information Industry Development Research Institute, said at the meeting that due to the high demand for talents on the demand side, “no talents can be found”. He said that many software and hardware companies not only require talents to understand programming skills, but also require knowledge of the industry. The single recruitment channel leads to the "unable to recruit talents"; the lack of salary competitiveness in demand-side industries leads to the "unable to retain talents".

In the field of intelligent networked vehicles, the lack of compound talents and the lack of practical ability of graduated talents are the main dilemmas faced by enterprises. Zhao Lianfang, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineering, pointed out in this meeting that some of the positions provided by intelligent and networked automobile companies are compound positions and require relevant talents to master a variety of knowledge and skills. But what needs to be noticed is that the automotive engineering discipline has not been set as an interdisciplinary subject in China, so the knowledge mastered by relevant talents does not have compound characteristics, which leads to a shortage of compound talents in some positions. In addition, some graduated talents still have the problem of insufficient practical ability. It takes up to a year to adapt to R&D-related jobs, resulting in a deviation between the supply of talents and the needs of the industry.

For the industrial Internet field, the large market demand and the small number of employees have caused an obvious imbalance between the supply and demand of talents. Shen Bin, deputy secretary general of the Industrial Internet Industry Alliance, said that in 2020, the number of new jobs in the industrial Internet will be 2.55 million, but the number of graduates of industrial Internet-related majors is only 655,000, and there is an imbalance between supply and demand in the job market. What is exacerbating this phenomenon is that only about 60% of graduates currently enter the information communication and manufacturing industries, which is far from meeting the needs of the industrial Internet industry. In Shen Bin's view, the difficulty in recruiting relevant talents may be related to the unclear definition of industrial Internet talents by some companies, and most industrial Internet companies are concentrated in first-tier cities.

The speed of talent supply cannot keep up with the pace of industry development is a major challenge facing the field of artificial intelligence. Cheng Yu, deputy director of the Talent Development Division of the Talent Exchange Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the training cycle of talents in colleges and universities is generally between 3 to 4 years, but the development speed of the artificial intelligence industry is very fast, so the current talents Supply has not kept up with the speed of industrial development.

Promote the integrated talent training system of production, education and research

The problem of talent supply in the field of industry and information technology cannot be solved overnight. It requires the government, enterprises, universities and other parties to unite and tackle the problem in a coordinated manner. As Pu Songtao said, it is necessary to vigorously promote the in-depth integration of production and education and cross-industry collaboration. The key to solving this problem is the collaborative research of schools and enterprises and the promotion of an integrated talent training system for production, education and research.

From the perspective of the government, the improvement of the top-level design is essential to the development of various fields of the information industry. Starting from the industrial Internet field, Shen Bin put forward relevant suggestions to relevant departments. She said that targeted talent policies in the field of industrial Internet should be introduced. For example, relevant departments such as the Ministry of Education approved the establishment of industrial Internet-related majors and disciplines. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the professional orientation, and carry out the training and construction of the industrial Internet interdisciplinary.

Due to the extremely strong demand for compound talents in the field of intelligent networked vehicles, Zhao Lianfang also proposed that the vehicle engineering major should be set as an interdisciplinary subject, and the curriculum should be reformed in a compound type. In addition, in view of the inadequate engineering practice ability of relevant talents and the slow iteration of university knowledge, she believes that the government should adopt methods such as setting up special funds to increase the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the update and revision of textbooks and jointly establish training centers with universities.

The field of artificial intelligence also needs relevant policy support. In Cheng Yu's view, advancing the construction of first-level disciplines in the field of artificial intelligence and encouraging interdisciplinary construction are the top priorities of the current industrial development.

From an enterprise perspective, the industry represented by intelligent connected vehicles needs to strengthen the supply of training for the industry and enterprises. Zhao Lianfang pointed out that at present, a large number of enterprises are supplementing the supply of talents through training. For enterprises, the overall efficiency of relying solely on their own to solve the large number and scattered content of training is not high, and the enterprise also lacks relevant resource platforms. Based on this, Zhao Lianfang believes that the industry should introduce a full range of training, and set up some targeted training programs in conjunction with the shortage of positions.

In response to the shortage of artificial intelligence jobs, Cheng Yu suggested that leading companies in the industry should launch targeted and problem-solving training courses. At the same time, we can also vigorously develop vocational training and education through measures such as upgrading the skills of employees on the job and accelerating the construction of training bases.

From the perspective of universities, what kind of talents enterprises and industries need, universities should cultivate what kind of talents. In order to solve the problem of the mismatch between the supply of talents and the needs of enterprises and industries, colleges and universities should create teaching models and faculty that are suitable for industrial development. Zhao Lianfang believes that colleges and universities should further break through the barriers to talent flow with companies and attract corporate talents to teach. It is also necessary to further promote the "dual-teaching system" and innovate various mechanisms that are conducive to the employment, short-term appointment, and teaching of senior technical personnel in enterprises.