Wang Yang, 27, is studying at a secondary technical school in Guizhou Province, three years after he got his bachelor's degree from Beijing University of Science and Technology, wrote the Guangzhou Daily August 26.

Wang is reportedly the first bachelor degree holder to continue his studies in a technical secondary school, which is set up to train skilled workers in China.

Wang Yang operates a lathe and spends 6 hours everyday in the workshop. [file]

His choice of a technical school rather than a graduate school has stirred up a nationwide debate that has even aroused the interest of the Ministry of Education.

The need for skilled workers is in contrast with the fierce competition students face in the job market after graduation.

Students swarm on the schoolyard of Guizhou Mechanical Industry School on August 23 before the term begins. Wang reached the school's workshop at 8:00am that day and pressed the button of a lathe. It's his task to learn how to operate it in the next 15 days.

Wang operates a lathe, and he spends 6 hours everyday in the workshop.

"I am not familiar with it and can finish only one per day," Wang said as he shaped an iron bar into an axletree.

A provincial education policy allows students with a senior high school certificate or above to skip the first year so Wang began taking second year courses.

"Beside Wang, Pan Yu, another graduate, and 40 students with senior high school certificates chose our school this year," Ni Maolin, the principal of Guizhou Mechanical Industry School told the Guangzhou Times. "It is our best year," he added.

"There is a giant difference between a technical school education and my university education. I spend six hours in a workshop rather than in a classroom, and it's very interesting to shape things," Wang said, putting a crabstick he shaped into his pocket to keep as a new course souvenir.

Most of Wang's classmates are much younger, but Wang said it was not a problem, since he is there to learn a trade.

Over a third of Chinese youth said higher education has resulted in less than they had expected in job-hunting, according to a newspaper survey conducted by the China Youth Daily, published on August 14.

The survey shows that 34.7 percent of the 8,777 respondents said higher education was both financially draining and time consuming, and they regretted choosing to go to university.

About 51.5 percent said university life had brought nothing more than books and papers. With a bachelor's degree but no practical skills, 39.2 per cent said, their chances of landing good jobs were slim.