In recent years, Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, has been taking various measures to cultivate highly-skilled talents who meet the demands of new quality productive forces, driving the region's high-quality development.

China's first German Chambers of Commerce Abroad (AHK) Academy was inaugurated in Taicang in August this year. The city has since pioneered a system in which AHK certificates are acknowledged as equivalent to Chinese ones. So far, 265 individuals with AHK certificates have obtained China's equivalent technician certificates, enabling them to benefit from China's preferential policies.

Moreover, Taicang has advanced the mutual recognition of Sino-German vocational skills qualifications, equating China's "Electrician" with "AHK Mechatronics Technician", the first system of its kind in China.

Taicang also leverages dual-system vocational education to cultivate highly-skilled talents. The Dual-System Vocational Education Training Base in Taicang has introduced a training system for the highest level of qualification certificate (Meister) in Germany. To date, 62 advanced management talents have been trained under this system for German enterprises.

The Taicang Sino-German Dual System Vocational Education Industrial Park, currently under construction, serves as a training center, examination and certification institution, and teacher training institution. Once operational, it is expected to train over 2,500 skilled talents annually according to German standards, provide more than 3,000 technicians to enterprises, and conduct various skill training sessions for over 5,000 participants each year.

These efforts have paid off. Taicang currently boasts four provincial leading craftsmen and 40 skilled master studios. By the end of last year, the city's skilled workforce totaled 167,400, including 68,200 high-skilled talents. Among every 10,000 workers, there are 1,394 high-skilled talents.