At present, in China, the number of people aged 60 and above has surpassed 310 million. Among them, around 45 million are either disabled or suffering from dementia. The need for elderly care and nursing keeps rising. At the same time, there is still a large gap in elderly care services in the country, especially when it comes to the supply of talents. The latest data shows that currently, only a little over 2.48 million people in China have obtained vocational qualification certificates or vocational skill level certificates for elderly care workers.
Expanding the supply of elderly care and nursing talents is, on one hand, an urgent task to deal with population aging. There are many problems that need to be solved immediately, such as a small number of elderly care and nursing talents, high turnover rates, a lack of standardized training, and big differences in service quality. On the other hand, it is also a great opportunity to effectively expand domestic demand and stimulate consumption. The scale of China’s silver economy has reached about 7 trillion yuan. It is estimated that by 2035, the scale of the silver economy is expected to reach around 30 trillion yuan, and there is huge growth potential in the consumption of life services like elderly care and nursing.
To better meet the needs of elderly care, it is necessary to promote both the quantitative growth and qualitative improvement of elderly care and nursing talents. While speeding up the expansion of the talent team, we should continuously help practitioners transform from relying on physical strength to having professional skills.
In recent years, China has introduced a series of policy measures to strengthen the training of elderly care and nursing talents. Especially this year, the Leading Group for Employment Promotion and Labor Protection of The State Council has issued an implementation plan to support the employment and entrepreneurship of key groups. It focuses on providing key livelihood services like elderly care to promote employment.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security have issued opinions on accelerating the vocational skills level assessment of skilled personnel in elderly care services. This helps to optimize the structure, improve the quality, and expand the scale of skilled personnel in elderly care services. The Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission, and other departments have issued a notice, making arrangements to strengthen the construction of majors in medical care for the elderly and management. All departments are working together in aspects like talent cultivation, skills assessment, and employment security to provide more powerful talent support for the high-quality development of elderly care services.
Focusing on enhancing the skills, qualities, and salary benefits of elderly care workers, various regions have also taken active actions. In Shanghai, the “Hongkou Elderly Care Worker” labor brand has been created, which helps front-line caregivers earn a monthly income of over 9,000 yuan. In Guangdong, 198 higher education institutions offer majors related to elderly care services, with more than 160,000 students enrolled. In Beijing, fresh graduates who enter local elderly care service institutions to work full-time in elderly care services can enjoy a one-time employment reward of up to 60,000 yuan. With the implementation of one practical measure after another, the development space for elderly care and nursing talents will become broader, and their sense of professional gain will be stronger.
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