China Opens 1st Robot School to Train 'Students' for Real-World Jobs

Thirty robots from various manufacturers filed into a classroom in eastern China this week, marking the opening of the country's first school dedicated to training machines for skilled employment, China Central Television reported yesterday.

The robots, ranging from industrial arms to service-and-security units, will undergo systematic instruction in ethics, communication, movement and scenario-based decision-making before receiving vocational certificates and being deployed to workplaces.

The school, located in Hangzhou's Yuhang District, was launched by Zhejiang University's Robotics Institute in partnership with provincial quality-inspection authorities and local government agencies, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The initiative comes as China faces a mismatch between its massive robot manufacturing capacity and the machines' real-world usefulness. The country installed 295,000 new industrial robots in 2024, accounting for 54 percent of global deployments, but many units lacked decision-making capabilities and safety certification for practical tasks, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

"Enterprises have done well with hardware but lag in software," said Jin Xinglai, a robotics firm executive cited by CCTV.

The school aims to bridge that gap. Its curriculum includes cognitive development, object recognition, conversation, emotional interaction, movement and navigation – all designed to teach robots to reason rather than just memorize responses.

"We've built a complete educational system, modeled on human training institutions," said Zhu Shiqiang, founder of the Hangzhou Robot School. "It covers ethics, laws and regulations, and a full set of specialized courses."

Each robot undergoes an entry evaluation and is placed into tracks such as physical training, arts, technical skills or health care. After completing the program, the school and provincial quality authorities assess the robot's performance and issue a "specialized skill level certificate." Graduates are then certified with a unique code to work in their designated roles.

Unlike typical testing sites or developmental labs, the robot school focuses on brain-like intelligence integration, and will continue to update its curriculum based on how "graduates" perform in actual jobs.

"What our robots earn is not just a certificate," Zhu said, "but a system of training that can keep improving in real-world use."