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Professional titles are the yardstick for measuring the ability and level of professional and technical personnel. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that it is necessary to "perfect the role of the baton of talent evaluation and provide a broader space for talents to play their roles and display their talents". Foreign languages and computers are no longer unified requirements, the authority of professional title evaluation is reasonably decentralized, and some new technologies and new professions are included in the evaluation system...In the past year since the implementation of the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Professional Title System, various regions have issued detailed rules to promote implementation, and the results are beginning to show.

In January 2017, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Professional Title System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") to further improve the professional title system, improve the professional title evaluation standards, innovate the evaluation mechanism, and improve the professional title management services. The "Opinions" proposed to strive to basically complete the reform tasks of the professional title series such as engineering, health, agriculture, accounting, college teachers, and technical college teachers within 3 years, and strive to complete the reform tasks of the professional title system within 5 years. In the past year, under the guidance of the "Opinions", local human resources and social security departments have issued implementation rules to promote the implementation of the policy.

No more "hard bars"

Foreign language and computer are no longer necessary conditions for professional title evaluation

Li Wanjun, a senior technician and welder at CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd., who was named "Moving China" in 2016, recently obtained a "professor" qualification certificate without taking the computer and foreign language proficiency tests. He is the first technical worker in Jilin Province to obtain a senior professional title. "I was able to obtain a senior professional title thanks to the good policy of professional title reform," Li Wanjun said with emotion.

As an old industrial base, Jilin implemented the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Professional Title System" and explored the reform of the professional title system. Foreign language and computer are not uniformly required, and it is stipulated that "double-qualified" high-skilled talents who play a backbone role in their own positions and teach in vocational colleges can apply for higher education series professional titles. It is these reform measures that enable skilled talents like Li Wanjun to skip the threshold of foreign language and computer and evaluate professional titles based on their performance.

The Opinion proposes that there will be no unified requirements for professional title foreign language and computer application ability examinations. If there is a real need to evaluate foreign language and computer proficiency, the employer or evaluation agency shall independently determine the evaluation conditions. At present, many provinces, including Guangdong, Shandong, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Anhui, Henan, Shanghai, Fujian, Beijing, Jiangsu, Yunnan, etc., have clearly stated that there will be no unified requirements for professional title foreign language and computer proficiency or that they will not be a necessary condition for professional title evaluation.

At the same time, papers are no longer the only indicator for evaluating talents. For many years, the way of judging talents by the number of papers has been criticized. For this reason, the Opinion clearly states that for professional titles with strong practicality and operability and no obvious research attributes, there will be no paper requirements; explore replacing paper requirements with other forms of achievements; promote the representative work system, focus on the quality of research results and creative works, and downplay the number of paper requirements. According to the requirements of the Opinion, various places have also successively issued implementation rules.

For professional and technical personnel working in remote and difficult areas and at the grassroots level of banners, counties (cities, districts) and below, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region focuses on examining their actual work performance, without requiring papers or scientific research results; it continues to set paper requirements for some senior professional titles, implements the representative work system, focuses on examining research results, performance contributions and the quality of work creation, and downplays the number of paper requirements. Hubei Province has made it clear that business management talents who have been registered in the province for more than three years and are engaged in production and business activities in accordance with the law can directly apply for senior economists, regardless of academic qualifications, seniority, or papers...

"The professional title reform has established a direction, that is, the evaluation of talents should be based on morality, ability, and contribution, not just papers, academic qualifications, seniority, computers, foreign languages, etc., just as everyone said, let those who are competent in their work be awarded professional titles, and let those who work and contribute be awarded professional titles." said Wu Jiang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Personnel Sciences.

Decentralize the review power

Highlight the leading role of the employer in the title review

"Outsiders evaluate insiders", the talent evaluation method is single and administrative... For a long time, the imperfect title evaluation mechanism has brought negative effects on the development of talent training in many fields.

In order to change the talent evaluation mechanism of "government evaluation, organization evaluation, and leadership evaluation", further streamline administration and delegate power, and transform government functions, the "Opinion" proposes that government departments should strengthen macro-management, strengthen public services, strengthen supervision during and after the event, reduce approval matters, reduce micro-management, and reduce administrative work. Highlight the leading role of the employer in the title review, scientifically define, and reasonably delegate the title review authority.

The reform of the professional title system in the plastic machinery industry in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, relies on leading enterprises to form a provincial plastic machinery industry senior engineer evaluation committee, relies on industry associations and Haitian Group, a national standard setting unit in the plastic machinery industry, to formulate evaluation standards, and absorbs experts from universities, scientific research institutions and enterprises such as Zhejiang University, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and the National Plastic Machinery Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center to achieve an organic combination of evaluation subjects.

"The evaluation of senior engineers in the plastic machinery industry provides high-quality services for talents and employers with an evaluation mechanism of "asking the industry to determine the professional title, letting the enterprise take the standard, and relying on performance to speak", which effectively encourages the professional development and team building of professional and technical talents." A relevant person in charge of the Ningbo Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau said.

Except Ningbo, all localities have formulated measures based on the "Opinions" and their own actual conditions to scientifically and reasonably delegate the right to review.

Jiangxi has delegated the right to review professional titles to regions, industries and employers. For units that conduct independent reviews, the human resources and social security departments will no longer review qualifications, but will instead manage them after the event. At present, the autonomy of professional title evaluation has been delegated to 14 enterprises, 37 colleges and hospitals, and 5 scientific research institutions, and all full-time undergraduate college teachers' professional titles are subject to independent evaluation.

Preliminary, the authority to evaluate senior primary and secondary school teachers was delegated to 18 provincial cities, and independent evaluation was carried out in 15 universities, 4 large enterprises, and the provincial academy of agricultural sciences and provincial academy of social sciences... Henan has orderly delegated the authority to evaluate deputy senior professional titles in the health series to provincial cities, and the authority to evaluate intermediate professional titles for primary and secondary school teachers to counties (cities, districts).

The Hubei Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security and the Provincial Department of Education jointly delegated the authority to evaluate teacher professional titles to 80 universities across the province. Universities conduct evaluations independently, issue documents and certificates independently, and use evaluation results independently.

"The talent evaluation standards of some universities and large enterprises may be stricter than those of the evaluation committee organized by the government, and more in line with the actual employment situation. They may also be more cautious in evaluating the people they use." Yu Jiadong, director of the Special and Technical Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said, "While saving the government's operating costs, it also promotes the transformation of government functions. The government departments in charge should do a good job of post-registration and supervision."

Break the "ceiling"

Open the channels for professional title evaluation and recruit talents in an unconventional way

Not long ago, a piece of news entitled "Intangible cultural heritage inheritors can also be evaluated for professional titles" attracted widespread attention. Such "eye-catching" content is actually the effect brought about by the reform of the professional title system in Beijing.

With the development of the economy and society, new technologies and new professions have emerged in many industries, but they have not been included in the professional title evaluation system. To this end, the "Opinion" proposes to further break the constraints of household registration, region, identity, archives, personnel relations, etc., create convenient conditions, and smooth the channels for professional title application for non-public economic organizations, social organizations, and freelance professional and technical personnel. Professional and technical personnel in private institutions in the fields of science and technology, education, medical care, culture, etc. enjoy equal treatment with professional and technical personnel in public institutions in terms of professional title evaluation.

In order to deepen the reform of the professional title system, Beijing stipulates that for talents in philosophy and social sciences, representative works can also include theoretical articles, decision-making consultations, research reports, etc.; for talents in education and teaching, health technology, representative works can also include high-quality courses, teaching cases, difficult medical records, etc.; for cultural and artistic talents, representative works can also include literary works, film and television works, drama works, craft works, etc. Therefore, it is no longer a dream for special talents such as inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to have corresponding professional titles.

Yunnan has issued opinions to expand the scope of professional title evaluation personnel, and opened up channels for professional title evaluation for talents outside the system, such as local talents, ethnic and folk traditional Chinese medicine talents, cultural talents, etc., without restrictions inside and outside the system; breaking the "ceiling" of professional title evaluation, such as professional talents such as arts and crafts artists, the highest professional title setting in the past was only "deputy senior", and now all series that did not have senior professional titles before will be set to senior.

In order to promote the reform and improvement of the grassroots health professional title system and fully mobilize the enthusiasm of grassroots health talents, Shandong will set up grassroots health senior professional titles in townships, communities and lower health service institutions with independent legal person status. Grassroots health professionals can participate in the evaluation of grassroots health senior professional titles.

"Being able to participate in the evaluation of senior professional titles breaks the "ceiling" of the career of many professional and technical talents, allowing them to gain due respect from the dual improvement of social status and economic treatment, thereby further stimulating their enthusiasm for their own work, and at the same time effectively avoiding the phenomenon of self-established professional titles such as "professor-level engineers." Wu Jiang said.

In addition, as to whether the opening of the senior professional title setting will lead to the problem of "picking a general from a group of dwarfs", Wu Jiang believes that in the process of promoting the reform of the professional title system, all localities need to pay attention to the fact that in order to reflect the differences between different levels, the professional title evaluation standards must be raised accordingly, and "rising tides lift all boats" must not be allowed; in the evaluation, it is also necessary to adhere to industry evaluation and independent evaluation, set up evaluation committees in accordance with relevant national regulations, build a team of experts with high standards, and evaluate strictly in accordance with the evaluation standards.

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