"A lump sum incentive fund of 800,000 yuan and a household allowance of 300,000 yuan for each highly-skilled leading talent introduced as a full-timer make me feel Qingdao's sincerity and respect." Liu Yongqing, a senior intern welding instructor that came to Qingdao to join Qingdao Technicians College (QDTC) one year ago, is entitled to a reward for full-time highly-skilled talents as the undertaker of a national skill master studio. Guo Rui, the chief technician of vehicle bench work at CRRC Qingdao Sifang Co., Ltd., selected for the 15th China Skills Awards this year, said he had recently received a lump sum incentive fund of 1 million yuan. "As an industrial worker, I feel more passionate and a stronger sense of gain and honor in Qingdao," he said.

Qingdao has recently released the award list of highly-skilled leading talents introduced and cultivated by Qingdao in 2021. 4 talents, including Liu Yongqing, received a slump sum incentive fund and a household allowance for highly-skilled leading talents introduced as full-timers; and 17 talents, including Guo Rui, received a total lump sum incentive fund of 14.8 million yuan for independently cultivated talents.

Qingdao has kept strengthening skilled talent team building, and taken the lead in the country in establishing sound policy systems of rewards, household allowances and pay & subsidies for cultivated and introduced highly-skilled leading talents. Under these systems, Qingdao has granted a household allowance of 300,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan to each of national and provincial leading skilled talents introduced as full-timers respectively, and granted a maximum lump sum incentive fund of 2 million yuan to each highly-skilled leading talent introduced as a full-timer or cultivated by an entity in Qingdao. A total incentive fund of 23.2 million yuan has been allocated since the policy came into effect in 2019.

The policy dividends have fully aroused Qingdao's enthusiasm at talent and artisan cultivation. According to the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, the number of applicants for the status of highly-skilled leading talents this year was up 75% year on year. Industrial fields of applicants extended from transportation and rail transit equipment to electronic technology and modern services. Applicants are younger: 5 applicants are aged at 30 or below and 10 are aged at 40 or below.

Motivated by policies, "Qingdao artisans" has emerged endlessly in all walks of life, demonstrating the huge value of industrial workers in the new period. Led by Liu Yongqing and Zang Lihuan, both winners from QDTC, the college has made up deficiencies in welding, and gradually built a welding cluster covering aluminum alloy, stainless steel, pressure vessels and welding robots. Meanwhile, the college has converted the welding trade in WorldSkills into a course. The student Gu Shaohui won the first place in the finished product welding category of the 2021 ARC Cup International Welding Competition; the student Pang Xuxiang claimed the "Sliver Award for Overall Performance"(1 silver and 3 bronzes for individual events) in the 15th National Engineering Construction Competition and was named a "National Young Technical Expert at Engineering Construction".

"At the next stage, we will promote the integrated development of skilled talents and industries, and step up efforts to cultivate innovative, application-oriented and skilled talents, thereby providing strong support for the industrial transformation and high-quality development of Qingdao," said a head of the Office of Occupational Ability Development, Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security.