Creative Education
2012. Vol.3, No.5, 658-661
Published Online September 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2012.35096
Copyright © 2012 SciR e s . 658
Study and Practices of IT Specialists Cultivation Mode:
A Chinese Independent College Perspective
Zhiwen Hu, Li Zhu, Huaqing Mao
Wenzhou University Oujiang College, Wenzho u , China
Received June 4th, 2012; r evised July 10th, 2012; accepted July 19th, 2012
Independent college is a courageous exploration for higher educational school running mechanism. How-
ever, exploring and practicing the novel IT specialists is the inevitable choice for independent colleges.
Therefore, following the guide by the market demand, and making full use of the development of regional
industry and advantageous resources of the university’s realizable orientation, carrying forward the novel
IT specialists cultivation mode positively, which is named “Generals + disciplines + majors + characteris-
tics”, has become a reality orientation for applied talents cultivation.
Keywords: Independent College; Information Technology; Talent Cultivation Mode
Introduction
Indep ende nt c olle ge i s a kind of new higher education al school
running mechanism in China since the late 1990s (Zhou,
2003: pp. 1-4), (Mou, 2004: pp. 5-9). As the pioneer of the
independent colleges, Oujiang College of Wenzhou University
is a full-time comprehensive college approved by the National
Ministry of Education. The goal of college is to train high-qual-
ity, practical, comprehensive and innovative talents with social
responsibility and high economic construction capability (Vor-
ley & Nelles, 2008: pp. 109-126). And Oujiang College has
placed great emphasis on reinforcing the capabilities and inno-
vations of students to improve their comprehensive qualities
and employment competitivene ss. It is run by a new m ech anis m
and model which is devoted to pioneering education and con-
structing the talent cultivation mode named “Generals + disci-
plines + majors + characteristics”. The results strongly sug-
gested that this educational mode laid the solid foundation for
the leapfrog development of disciplines.
Information Technology (IT) and relevant majors is the most
popular major in domestic universities and colleges, and the ho-
mogeneity of talents cultivation mode is arising. With the rapid
expansion of IT, the differences between the intensions and
extensions of the IT, which were coined in ten years ago, cause
the gap between comprehensive qualities of the graduates and
the market demand. And this gap is widening even as the pace
of the information age accelerates in society day by day. On the
other hand, the quantity of the graduate candidates in IT and
relevant majors is hardly to meet the demand of information
industry. Absolutely, indefatigable efforts should be made to
bridge that gap.
Therefore, with the “quality survival, characteristics and de-
velopment” education philosophy, it is practical significant to
stick to exploring and constructing the new IT talent cultivation
mode which includes macroscopic thinking and strategic resea rc h ,
planning the development seriously, charting out the future sci-
entifically and renewing conceptions integrated with practice.
Opportunities and Challenges of Constructing
the New Talent Cultivation Mode
Independent college is secondary college of undergraduate le v e l
run by the new mechanism and mode. However, like the other
new things, the independent college is affected by social envi-
ronment, relative law and self-asserting element. There are lots
of difficulties and contradictions in development of Oujiang Col-
lege, such as: following the school-running pattern of Wenzhou
University, shaky foundation of education resources and atten-
tion on theory but inadequate with the practice. It is necessary
to study and resolve those difficulties and contradictions, and
promote the leap-forward development college.
During the exploration and construction, the challenges and
dilemmas are existing as following: 1) Major setting and con-
structing lack of characteristics which causes the Oujiang Col-
lege development guideline is the same with the Wenzhou Uni-
versity. The major setting is dispersed by the disciplines, and
there are seven majors belonging to engineering, science and
management respectively. The structure and layout of those ma-
jors are not reasonable and suitable for the social development;
2) The closed operation is detached from the market demand; 3)
The backward course setting is out of step with ability training;
4) Lacking of high quality education resources; 5) It causes the
dependence of Wenzhou University and the restriction of teach-
ers. Oujiang College has few education features of comparative
advantage.
In the meantime, there are unprecedented chances for talent
cultivation mode caused by the flexible operation and decision
mechanisms of independent college which includes: 1) encour-
ages the general education and innovative education to be the
motive force and reality orientation of the independent college;
2) Resolve the structural imbalance between the police power
and academic power and conflicts of teachers; build up the i nput,
output and feedback mechanisms of decision information; con-
struct the participatory decision-making mechanism on network
fo r teach er to part icipate in t he adm inist ratio n (Qiu, 2009: pp.
82-85); 3) The internal motive and external need of local uni-

Z. W. HU ET AL.
versity to serve the societal function which is an inevitable
choice of independent college is named “school-enterprise col-
laboration, combination of working and learning”; 4) Regard
the employment work as life-blood of independent college de-
velopment, and construct the employment guidance system in
the cultivation mode (Gao, 2008: pp. 81-82).
Construction and Practice of IT Talent
Cultivation Mode
1. Construction of “Generals + disciplines + majors + char-
acteristics” IT talent cultivation mode (Figure 1).
The so-called “Generals + disciplines + majors + characteris-
tics” IT talent cultivation modes means the general education
and innovative education is proposed according to the IT talent
ability requirement which is “solid academic foundation, great
ability, high quality, good at innovating”. The mode is based on
“common foundation platfor m, major foundation platform, di sci -
pline platform, practical training platform” and regards practi-
cal innovation as storyline, which emphasizes on majors con-
struction, and insists on “school-company cooperation, working
and learning combination” to construct the general courses group,
discipline foundation courses group, professional courses group
and particular courses group. The mode divides the four years
undergraduate education into three phrase: first two yeas is first
phrase and the target is lay a firm foundation by the discipline;
the third year is second phrase which the goal is training by the
special disciplines, the last year is third phrase including multi-
ple synthesize curriculum design, short term training, field wor k,
social practice, graduation field work, graduation project. Those
practical sections make student participate the practical applica-
tion and improve their ability to analyze and solve problems
(Zhou, 2010: pp. 151-154).
Since August, 2009, the principle for Oujiang College is to
reform the original major, build up the priority major and expl ore
the particular major. The college optimized the original major
which puts the emphasis on two major and one particular school.
Right now Oujiang College has Wenzhou key discipline “Com-
puter Science and Technology”, Oujiang College key discipline
“Electronic and Information Engineering”, Microsoft IT acad-
emy, Wenzhou information security infra structure facilities (W en -
zhou information security evaluation center, Wenzhou informa-
tion security research center, Wenzhou information security trai n-
ing center), Wenzhou University information security research
institute. Those organizations provide a powerful guaranteed IT
talent cul tivation mode. In a ddition, colleges set up a h ig h -q ua li t y
teaching faculty to apply the talent cultivation mode.
2. Taking employment as our orientation, design the applica-
tion talent cultivation solution.
To explore the new IT personnel training mode, the first step
is to establish a set to confirm the high-quality information te ch-
nology IT talents training program according to the needs of the
industry and progress of science and technology update. There-
fore, we have the original training program that was redesigned
and improved according to the subject, by setting the profes-
sional direction of traditional thinking and regional economy,
the talent market in close connection with the road, according
to the employment demand to set up professional direction, and
along with the needs for social and technology development,
timely updated professional direction and content of the course.
The students choose their own direction, and fully embody the
principle of “teach students in accordance with their aptitude”
Offshore
Outsourcing E-commerce Information Security
IT Urgently
needed
personne l
Character of College
Career
Development
Planning
Occupational
Guidance Occupational Convoy Occupational Tracing
Management
Team Project Practice Examination Evaluation Qualification Examination
School-compan y co op eration , Wor king and lear nin g
combination
General
Course
Group
Major
Course
Group
Disciplines
Course
Group
Particular
Course
Group
Code
Template
Library
Document
Template
Library
Configure
Management
Library
Evaluation
Library
Standard
Specification
Library
Special
Technical
Library
Education
Resource
Library
Practical
Example
Library
Common
Foundation
Platform
Major
Foundation
Platform
Discipline
Foundation
Platform
Practical
Foundation
Platform
IT talent ability requirement
IT talent
cultivation
mode
system
Figure 1.
IT talent cultivation mode for Wenzhou University Oujiang College.
according to their own interest and level, through the selection
of courses arrangement and the professional direction.
In the process of course construction with the curriculum group
construction as the main line, the exquisite courses and the key
courses drive general curriculum construction. According to the
“core stability, flexible direction” train of thought, professional
core curriculum group of computer and electronic information
according to the basic theory of knowledge system, tamp foun-
dation, relatively stable, prevent the students future develop-
ment from the “aftereffect inadequacy”. Professional direction
and the curriculum are market demand-oriented, and reflect the
employment market for IT application type talents knowledge
structure requirements. We should emphasize practical ability
and practical ability, pay attention to occupation attainment and
skills training and exercise according to the employment and
flexible setting so as to enhance students’ adaptability. Core cur -
riculum construction focuses on the renewal of the teaching co n-
tent, teaching method, teaching means in particular a nd the r ef o rm
of evaluation mode. Professional direction and courses setting
should be flexible to respon d to market changes and update timely.
Advanced design of the teaching content not only provides stu-
dents with a complete knowledge structure, but also sa tisfies the
needs of students’ development.
3. Taking requirement as our orientation, construct the “mul-
tiple layer and integration” practical teaching system.
In order to make the graduates to serve the community better,
we need to cultivate the students’ ability to analyze and solve
the problems, and the teaching model should be translated from
knowledge to ability, avoid “to fight only on paper” and s tre ng th -
ening the link of practice.
In practice, we always adhere to make reform and innovation
of the practice teaching as the main line. During the curriculum
setting and the teaching design, we emphasize applications, cul-
tivating students’ practical ability in practice. Therefore, we n e ed
to design a multi-level and integrated practice teaching system,
which consists of “unit experiment, comprehensive experiments,
Copyright © 2012 SciRe s . 659

Z. W. HU ET AL.
short term training, graduation practice and graduation design”.
Also, we will ensure sufficient practice credits/hours. At the s ame
time, we will carry out various academic competitions, stude nts’
research projects and other extra curricular activities. The prac-
tice credits are accounted for a reasonable proportion of the
professional education credits. In the professional core courses
and the modules of specialty orientation course, the proportion
for experimental teaching hours and the theory hours are rea-
sonable.
According to the idea of “from th e demand to push”, the p rac -
tice teaching link has undertaken comparative comprehensive
reformation as following through the construction of “four plat-
form eight base”:
1) The reformation of practice link for the professional core
courses focuses on training programming ability and other basic
skills, emphasizes standardization of the experimental link. Ea ch
course is planned by the person in charge of course system, wh ic h
is a clear target in experimental teaching outline; the require-
ment and content for experiments unit are standardized accord-
ing to the experimental guidance, which promises culture foun-
dation and the promotion of integrated design, encourages re-
search and innovation, and promotes the teaching methods and
means of reformation;
2) The reformation of the practice for professional direction
module courses focuses on training students’ comprehensive de-
sign ability. In addition to unit experiments, each course in-
cludes comprehensive design experiments, which aims at di-
gesting all the contents of the course. The association between
professional courses is relatively strong. The actual develop-
ment of the projects requires integration of multiple knowledge.
Therefore we need to design a project associated with various
courses, and this will make the student acquire the ability of
analyzing and solving problems;
3) Short term training. Short term training is combined with
professional direction of the students, which is accordance with
the mode of “project drive, team cooperation”. Through simu-
lation of projects development, the students will master the
learned knowledge, inspire innovative ideas and skills training,
raise abilities including independent analysis, practice, com-
munication, teamwork and project management;
4) Graduation practice and graduation design. Graduation prac-
tice and graduation design are respectively arranged in the final
year. The subject of the graduation design is further deepened
than graduation practice, of which the objective is to train com-
prehensive use of the knowledge and ability to solve the practi-
cal problems of the students. It also improves the comprehen-
sive quality of the students and lays a good foundation for em-
ployment. The students can participate in research project of the
teachers or participate in the actual project development in the
relevant enterprises, or practice in practice base with coopera-
tion established between school and enterprise. Through these
actual exercises, the students will not only use knowledge flexi-
bly, but also accumulate practical experience. It also improves
practical ability, thus narrowing the distance to requirement of
enterprise, which creates good condition for high salary employ-
ment. In order to strengthen management and establish informa-
tion platform for the graduation practice/graduation, we should
monitor effectively from topic choosing to graduation reply.
Also, we equip with “Double Teachers” for the students who
finish their graduation design out of school, and that is to say
the students are guided by the professional teachers and techni-
cal staffs. This method will help the student to improve the
structure of knowledge and practical application ability, finally
become the applied talents of engineering with solid foundation.
The teaching mode is featured with teachers guiding students,
students’ cooperation, and the communication between teachers
and students.
4. The mode of combination involving production, teaching
& research will enhance adaptability and practicability of talent
cultivation in multiple channels.
The college cultivates students in closed or semi-closed mode
often has some gap with the requirement of the enterprise. The
enterprises need the experienced staffs, but the graduated stu-
dents are lacking in experience precisely. This phenomenon is
obvious in supply and demand of the IT talents. In order to
cultivate the applied talents, “school-enterprise cooperation, com-
bining learning with working” is the route one must follow. The
main ways for combination involve production, teaching &
research including enterprise customization and attracting the
students participating in the research projects of the teachers.
The modes including cooperation with enterprises to estab-
lish practice base and customization talent cultivation at the s t age
of graduation practice/graduation design take full advantages in
both college and enterprises. The college can cultivate the stu-
dents according to requirements, such as “the unitary training”,
“talent classification cultivation”; The enterprise can import en-
terprise culture, technology and other aspects of the requirem e nt s
into process of the teaching in advance and training technical
personnel for their own needs.
Talent cultivation customization makes our graduates directly
meet the needs of the enterprises so that the students meet the
requirements of the enterprises and the enterprises will have q u a l i -
fied talents. Therefore it leads to a win-win situation, which will
strengthen the adaptability and practicability of talent cultiva-
tion, realize the successful connection between talent cultiva-
tion and social needs, and reach the target of application talent
cultivation.
We will directly cooperate with the enterprises through tea-
cher’s scientific research activities to promote the cultivation of
application talents. Firstly, we need to establish a good scien-
tific research environment for teachers, through a number of
young teachers of rich practical experience, at the completion
of teaching tasks at the same time, to undertake the enterprise
scientific research item. Secondly, we need encourage students
to participate in teachers’ research projects actively, and the
ability of students will be largely improved by taking part in the
actual project, and the learning initiative and enthusiasm of the
students are also improved The students with practical devel-
opment experience can get more favor of the enterprise and will
realize interaction between teachers’ research and development
of engineering application talents.
5. Characteristic Concise, deepening reformation of talents
training mode.
In recent years, we focus on the goals of training and empl oy-
ment, and the Institute insists ideas of “enterprise cooperation,
combining learning with working”, which broadens their edu-
cational ideas and expands the channels of education and we
have achieved good results.
On February 24, 2009, Oujiang College and Microsoft China
developed talents of service outsourcing. In July, 2010, Micro-
soft IT Academy was included in the “international service out-
sourcing talents cultivation base of Zhejiang province”. On De-
cember 23, 2009, three centers of information security in Wen-
zhou as three information security infrastructures are settled in
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660

Z. W. HU ET AL.
Copyright © 2012 SciRe s . 661
our college, whose purpose is to provide information security
services for the local Wenzhou, and train skilled high-end tale nt s
to meet growing demand of talents for the information security
field.
Nowadays, relying on the Microsoft IT Academy, Taobao ch a r -
acteristic class, “Zhejiang international service outsourcing t a le nt
training demonstratio n bas e”, “international certification test center,
three centers” of “Wenzhou information security”, national in-
formation technology tight talents training project, we cultivate
advanced applied talents who are suitable for outsourcing ser-
vices, e-commerce, information security, smart appliances and
other industries; relying on the “employment escort assurance
plan docking base”. We guarantee the students to be employed
successfully. The initial employment rate of the graduates in
2010 reached 97.778%; 47 graduates of 2011 (approximately
1/4 of the total graduates ) had accessed to the plan of “high
road” “pre-job training” and acquired professional employment,
and the salary is not less than 3500 yuan a month, which has
formed relatively obvious features of run ning a school. The n ew
personnel training mode obtains acknowledgement of the stu-
dents, parents and the community, and at the same time, it was
also paid sustain attention o n by authoritati ve medi a such as p e o-
ple media.
Safeguard Mechanism for Information
Technology Talent Cultivation Model
In order to standardize the application personnel training work,
we form a relatively compl eti ve set of ma na gement mec hani sm.
In daily teaching operation, we have made relevant documents
and regulations system decompose the teaching tasks in deta ile d,
and assure that each work is carried on methodically.
We also have established the multi-level teaching manage-
ment system of the “college-branch of the college—profess-
sional—course group”. According to the plan of talent training,
we set up a certain number of curriculum group, and each or-
ganization will take the backbone teacher as the person in
charge, who is responsible for the coordination of daily teaching
work and teaching reform.
The teacher will participate in relevant organizations, imple-
ment dynamic management and set up educational supervision
to monitoring quality of teaching and help the teachers to im-
prove teaching quality in time. The teaching management team
is keen-witted, capable, efficient, diligent and responsible, and
full of innovative awareness, which is willing to provide teach-
ers and student with good services. At the same time on com-
pletion of teaching tasks, the college need actively guide and su p-
port the teachers to take part in teaching research and teaching
reform, which will create good environment for teaching reform
and innovation.
Conclusion
Based on the actual situations of the students, combining char-
acteristics of area and professionals, we will focus on t he gr ow th
of the students, take “academic, employment, and entrepreneur-
ship” as the main line, take “education, management and ser-
vice” as the means, “take grasp quality inside, outside the plas-
tic image” as the carrier. There still has been a long way to go
for cultivating information technology talents with unique style
of Oujiang College. But we will make the “three-chuang” tal-
ents as the goal, through the concept of innovative personnel
training to construct training mode systematically. The train
me ch ani sm, quality monitoring system, especi ally agreement with
situation of the independent college, are actively explored and
practiced on “Generals + disciplines + majors + characteristics”
information technology talents cultivation model, which pro-
vides references and examples for the talents cultivation for in-
dependent colleges.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a grant from Zhejiang province
college lab research project: Research on construction trinity of
network and information security lab (Grant No. Y201236).
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