Abstract China has built the world’s largest vocational education system, yet its development trajectory remains under-theorized in international comparative literature. Adopting document content analysis as the research method, this research examines China’s vocational education system construction across three phases: Phase One (1949–1978), System Initiation; Phase Two (1978–2018), System Expansion and Adaptation; and Phase Three (2019 onwards), System Consolidation. Using an analytical framework that combines the concepts of state intervention and vocationalism across four dimensions, the research explores strong state capacity in China’s vocational education system construction, reflected in three themes: consistent policy direction, a commitment to education equity, and the strategic localization of international models. The research argues that these three themes have strong policy and practice implications for other nations aiming to build, improve, and reform their vocational education systems for skill development.
Zheng et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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