2016 2nd International Conference on Modern and Social (MESS 2016) ISBN: 978-1-60595-346-5

The Research and Practice of Dual System Education with Chinese Characteristics

Yao LI1,a, Xiu-Lin LIU2,b,*, Jun-Jie YANG1 and Wu-Xin YU1 1School of Electromechanical & Architectural , Jianghan , , 2School of Foreign Language, Jianghan University, Wuhan, China, 430056 [email protected], [email protected] *Corresponding author

Keywords: Dual system education, Teaching plan, Practice teaching

Abstract. We have cooperated with University of Stuttgart effectively on dual system education. In the light of the characteristics of students in China, we mainly adjusted and revised German teaching plan and teaching practice of dual teaching mode to fit the requirement of the students in our country. On this basis, we have made five-year practice exploration in cultivating the students majoring in mechanics. The results show that for applied undergraduate colleges and , adopting the dual system education has a good role in improving students’ practical ability, professional ability and employment ability. At the same time, it also helps to cultivate the students' team cooperation spirit.

Introduction Dual system education results from a vocational training mode of Germany. It requires that students must study in two places; one is a university, which main function is to teach professional knowledge related to the profession. Another one is an enterprise, which main function is to make students obtain professional training of vocational skills. In Germany, undergraduate teaching mode of university with dual system is that students study theory knowledge for 3 months in university, and then practice in enterprise for 3 months. After that, they continue to study theory knowledge in university for next 3 months, and then practice in enterprise for 3 months again. A six-month period is a transformation cycle between university and enterprise. The periods will be over when students finish their three-year education. Dual system education is very common in Germany. In high school, students are exposed to the engineering practice, so that students entering the university can naturally receive the dual system education. Among nearly 2000 applied universities in our country, except for a few schools in the teaching mode of 3+1, the vast majority of colleges and universities still adopt the traditional teaching mode, that is, theoretical study, cognition practice, theoretical study and production practice (only 4 weeks). Quite few of them dabble in dual system education. Study of the theory of dual system education is rarely reported. From the literature analysis, only a few scholars introduced the German dual system and its development, the research and practice of the real dual system education were rare. At present, although a few vocational and technical colleges are carrying out it, this is not a real dual system education, for the students only learn the operation of the equipment and the basic maintenance, without the rotational study between college and enterprise. And also, it is the final year that students practice in the enterprise, which has substantial distinction from the dual system.

Characteristics of Dual System Education University of dual system education establishes a close partnership with enterprise. Because cultivation of the talents is not only the task of the university, but also the mission of the enterprise, and the enterprise should be involved in the teaching of the students. Enterprises need to formulate

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reasonable student’s enterprise practice plans in different stages for those who will practice there. Therefore, those students not only study in university, but also practice in enterprises. Besides these characteristics, the main advantage of dual system education is embedded in: ①Cultivating applied senior talents effectively. Dual system education integrates theory teaching and practice teaching, the actual work experience, so that students not only deepen the professional theory knowledge study, but also become familiar with the enterprise organization structure, production and management of each department. Experiencing the technical, economic and social changes, they free easier to adapt themselves to enterprise and they can skip the introduction stage, which greatly reduces the blindness in the human resources use and the inadaptability of the talents. It develops the student’s sense of responsibility, ability to work independently, professional ability and the cooperation ability. ②Helping students to be employed when graduate. Because students must sign a contract with an internship enterprise through the two-way selection before college entrance. Without the enterprise team’s instruction, he/she can learn more about enterprise, such as its culture, professional fields, the relevant professional skills and experience. In turn, there is sufficient time for enterprise to inspect, evaluate the student according to his/her potential for development, and quality characteristics, so that enterprise can arrange suitable jobs. So, most graduates from university of dual system education can be directly employed by the internship enterprises. Even when they apply for a job in the other enterprises, they have more chances because of this kind of working experience. ③High starting salary and fast promotion. Through years of practice, graduates from university of dual system education are not the newbie, for they skipped the conventional stage of internship after graduation. So they have higher starting salaries than those who graduate from the ordinary university and university of applied . This condition also gives them the possibility of rapid promotion.

Practical Exploration of Dual System Education Why can’t we adopt dual system education while it has much advantage? There are two reasons. Firstly, Chinese educational system is that each academic year contains 2 semesters, which are about 40weeks. It is different from that in German. Secondly, our students have almost no contact with the enterprise before they graduate and know little about industrial situation, process, and mechanical equipment. They will directly enter the enterprise when they graduate. Thirdly, the more important reason is that enterprises in our country are reluctant to accept students practice. Our country doesn’t make laws to require companies to accept student’s internships. Therefore, a direct copy of German dual system education obviously doesn’t work. Can we learn from the successful experience of German dual system education and apply it to the cultivation of applied high-level technical talents? Jianghan University, as an applied university, has carried out the practice and exploration. Exploration Objectives In order to explore dual system teaching mode with Chinese characteristics, we have cooperated with the German Hanns Seidel Stiftung, Stuttgart dual system Education University, German companies and other foreign companies in China since 2010. According to the talent-training mode of German dual system, we established cooperation projects in the major of mechanical design and manufacturing and its automation of Jianghan University, and formed a dual system education experimental class, which laid a good foundation for exploring dual system education with Chinese characteristics. The objective study of dual system education focuses on ① exploring the dual system education with Chinese characteristics in order to cultivate excellent engineers and serve the regional economy and social development, in which the innovation ability and professional quality should be highlighted; ② building the practice teaching system of internship content，methods, implementation steps, required standard ability as well as assessment method. ③ establishing a stable practice teaching bases and laboratories, which are necessary to cultivate the teachers with good quality; ④ 348 finding new ways to develop outstanding engineers, which can be also used for reference to the other applied engineering majors. Adjustment and Revision of Theory Teaching Plan Because of the dual system teaching, it is necessary to revise teaching plan in order to adapt to the periodic practice teaching in the internship enterprise.

Table 1. Credits and hours allocation and graduation requirements. Teaching Required credits and hours Graduation Course type procedures and its’ allocation requirements Theory teaching (include General education separate required hours 748 courses experiment class) credits 41.5 hours 0 optional credits 0 hours 1224 Graduate credits required of this major credits 75 Basic major course required at least hours 0 optional 227 credits 0 hours 240 required credits 15 Major course hours 120 optional credits 7.5 Central practical link required credits 85 Practical teaching Extracurricular optional credits 3 innovation and practice Required practice teaching credits (include the experiment in the theory courses, practical hours translated into credits and credits of separate experiment class: 121) should be in proportion to the total required credits: 50%. Considering the limited space, here is only part of teaching plan. The table2 is part of the week table of teaching process of theory teaching plan.

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Table 2. Week of teaching process. we e k 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 ter m Milita Entrance ry Winter 1 education trainin Theory teaching for 16 weeks exam vacation g 2 Theory teaching and exam for 14 weeks Engineering skills training1(12weeks) Engineering skills training 3 Theory teaching and exam for 12 weeks 2(10weeks) 4 Theory teaching and exam for 14 weeks Engineering skills training 3(9weeks) Theory teaching and exam 5 for 10weeks Job rotation practice 1(12weeks) 6 Theory teaching and exam for 11weeks Job rotation practice 2(12weeks) Theory teaching and exam 7 for 10weeks Job rotation practice 3(12weeks) job 8 Enterprise research and graduation design (16weeks) assignment on graduation

It can be seen from the table that, without reducing the students’ theoretical study, the plan can guarantee students to study the professional knowledge. Also, students can finish quite amount of practice in enterprises, a total of 52 weeks. That teaching design not only helps to improve students' professional ability, but also meets the needs of our students. This teaching plan shows that the deference between our dual system and theirs is that our students start the enterprise rotational internship in the fifth semester. The first four semesters involve 31-weeks engineering skill training, which is done in university. Adjustment and Revision of Practice Teaching Plan The students' practical education includes engineering skills training and enterprise internship. The adjustment is mainly because students in our country rarely participate in the practice of enterprises before entrance, and understand no more about the enterprise. Furthermore, students do not know enough about the engineering equipments and their operation. Therefore, it is necessary to make students learn to use basic tools and understand how to operate the mechanical equipments in early stage. Based on this, we divide the students’ practice teaching into campus engineering skills training and enterprise practice, which is suitable for students of China. Engineering skills training Based on the teaching plan, engineering skills training will be completed in the early 2 years in university Engineering Training Center and College of Electromechanical and Architecture Engineering Laboratories. Main contents are survey and hand drawing, the conventional mechanical processing skills, machine tools dismounting and parts mapping, miller skills, casting, welding, three dimensional modeling and CNC machining, heat treatment process design and practice, electronics foundation and skills, rapid prototyping and electrical processing, etc,. To complete these engineering training needs31 weeks and aims to cultivate the students' basic qualities of engineering, and prepares professional skills for them to enter the enterprise practice for students.

350 Enterprise practice The enterprise practice takes 52 weeks. Students are assigned to the various rotational enterprises and even specific posts to practice. In the late stage, they will be involved into the enterprise project thematic research and complete the graduation design based on the project development work. Practice Teaching Management In the aspect of practice teaching management, the enterprise training outline is formulated to determine the content of the enterprise training for students, methods, steps, required standard and ability assessment method, and corresponding measures to realize this goal. In order to ensure the students' practical effect, on the one hand, we negotiate with the enterprise to make reasonable students enterprise practice plan for different stages, and put forward practical requirements to the students. On the other hand, strengthening the contact between practice enterprise and the students to find and solve problems in a timely manner. And to make periodic summary in time is quite necessary stage of the later enterprise practice. The university sends professional teachers to guide students to do the enterprise thematic research and complete graduate design with enterprise teachers. The Implementation of the Dual System Education In order to explore the dual system education with Chinese characteristics, we have cooperated with the German Hanns Seidel Stiftung, Stuttgart dual system Education University, German companies and other foreign companies in China since 2010. According to the talent training mode of German dual system education, we have established cooperation projects in the major of mechanical design and manufacturing and its automation of Jianghan University, and formed a dual system education experimental class of about 25 people. Through voluntary registration and selection of enterprises two-way choice. Up to now, the employment rates of the students who graduated in last two years are both beyond 98 percent. Also, they get credited by their enterprises. These students not only get college diplomas, but also are awarded bachelor’s degree by Stuttgart dual system in vocational education university, which can also lay a certain foundation for the future if they would work in Europe. Implementation Effect After a few years, the first students who received dual system education in Jianghan University graduated as expected. They obtained not only the graduation certificate and degree certificate of Jianghan University, but also bachelor's degree certificate from Stuttgart dual system university. In the enterprises practice, because some projects need cooperation to complete, from which students’ team spirits get strengthened through the completion of this project. The ability to communicate with people is obviously improved. They understand the importance of social communication skills. In addition, because of the enterprise practice, they can experience enterprise technical, economic and social changes. Through this kind of teaching mode, the students' professional ability, social ability and ability of method get significantly improved, which result in students' good employment competitiveness.

Conclusion Practice has proved that the dual system education has a good role in the improvement of students' practical ability, professional ability and employment ability for applied undergraduate colleges and universities. At the same time, it also helps to cultivate the students’ team cooperation spirit. Although some work has been done about dual system education, the number of people involved is not enough. It needs to study from various aspects, and more enterprises should be involved into the teaching reform to let more students study in the dual system education.

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Acknowledgement This work was supported by Ministry of Education of China under Grant No. 09YJA880055.

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