Professionals needed

Answering queries about the local crawfish college, Gong Dingrong, former mayor of Qianjiang, told media outlets in an earlier interview, "There are many kinds of talent, some of which can launch a satellite, but cannot necessarily cook crawfish."

Gong said that just as professional knowledge is required to construct a spaceship, professional talent with a knowledge of aquaculture, cooking, marketing and restaurant management is needed to provide quality crawfish for diners. In view of this, it is reasonable to set up a major to train workers in the industry.

Crawfish, a pillar industry in rural Qianjiang, is a popular nighttime snack in China. In 2017, Jianghan Art Vocational College and a number of companies cooperated to open the Qianjiang Crayfish College to cater to industrial development and rural vitalization.

The college, which has 428 students, runs four majors－culinary craft and nutrition, catering management, marketing, and aquaculture.

The students do not have winter or summer vacations. Instead, they study the crawfish industry. When business is slow, they learn theory in class, and during the peak season they work as interns at restaurants.

Wang Zhongqiu, vice-president of the college, said: "Some people don't understand this. The students not only learn to cook crawfish. We have 28 courses in the three-year study period, including English, law and different types of Chinese cuisine such as Sichuan and Xiang (Hunan).Crawfish is just our focus."

He added that about 80 percent of the graduates work for restaurant chains or hotels as cooks, sales staff members or managers, while others start their own businesses. Some of them earn more than 10,000 yuan a month. "The market response has been quite good," Wang added.

"The (vocational education) major needs to meet the demands of local industry. In addition, students should have more than just one skill. We need to comprehensively educate them and equip them with innovation skills. We encourage and support entrepreneurship, so that such talent can receive wider social recognition," Wang said.

The college has provided short-term training for some 10,000 people with insufficient time to devote to their studies. It has also published eight books about crawfish and has helped draw up 10 standards for the industry.

A member of the new alliance, the college is cooperating with the luosifen industry school to mass produce instant luosifen with crawfish, which is particularly popular with young consumers.

Jiang Hao, a partner at the consultancy Roland Berger, said the alliance will provide a professional platform for Chinese food with local characteristics and will also team up with different sectors to create value.

"For example, together they can share resources, increase brand influence and promote marketing," he said.

Jiang added that success for many industries in China with local characteristics is due to empiricism (a philosophical perspective based on experience and observation), but the weakness of empiricism is that it is hard to measure quality.

Developing a scaled industry from a family workshop calls for a standardized production process, a complete system and the cultivation of professionals, he said.

"As China is developing better-quality vocational education, such industry schools can offer different occupational paths for students who don't follow the traditional route to university," Jiang added.