Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

It's a new week again.

It was raining heavily outside. When Zhuang Zhongchen returned from a meeting in the general affairs department, he found the office shrouded in gloom. His colleagues were all busy "doing handicrafts," making vocational skill level certificates.

Zhuang Zhongchen smiled slightly and clapped his hands: "I have some good news for everyone: the new employees assigned to our bureau this year will be three female comrades in our Vocational and Technical Section. They will form an internal affairs group, and the group leader will be one of the newly arrived military spouses. In the future, all matters such as certificate issuance will also be transferred to the internal affairs group."

Graduation season has finally arrived, and enterprises and public institutions are assigning a large number of new employees. Positions in government agencies like the Labor Bureau are neither the best nor the worst; at least they are government-employed, making them considered good jobs.

Currently, it's true that everyone can be assigned a job. However, unless they are graduates of vocational schools or technical colleges, they can directly enter designated factories. Otherwise, unemployed youth face numerous difficulties, and the only jobs they can get are in large collective enterprises.

However, the situation in major cities like Beijing is relatively better. If you can't get into university, you can try for a vocational school; if you can't get into a vocational school, you can try for a technical school; and unemployed youth who can't get into any of those can wait for the local government to assign them a job. Even though it's a large collective, at least they have a job, right?

Just to clarify: High school graduates in Beijing can also take entrance exams for vocational schools, technical schools, and technical colleges. Therefore, the city has a very comprehensive education system.

But in many parts of inland China, there are hardly any factories, and almost no vocational or technical schools. Moreover, many students are from rural areas. If they fail the college entrance exam, they go straight back home to farm. They don't even have a safety net?

This led to a ridiculous phenomenon—upon graduating from junior high, many would rather take the entrance exam for a vocational school than a regular high school, all in order to secure a government-eligible position with a guaranteed government job. Ultimately, this resulted in the best junior high graduates attending vocational schools, where the admission scores were even higher than those for regular high schools.

In reality, even a fool knows that a college graduate is far better than a vocational school graduate. The reason rural children give up the opportunity to go to university is simply because they really can't afford to gamble!

However, the colleagues here are quite happy, as they will have one less task to do in the future.

However, at that moment, Gu Qiming couldn't wait to ask, "Xiao Zhuang, do you need me to do any preparatory work for the exams in the second half of the year?"

Zhuang Zhongchen glanced at him with a half-smile, thinking, "Damn, he's even learned how to force someone to abdicate?"

However, after a week of getting acquainted, this seasoned veteran gradually figured out the rules of the organization's operation, and indeed, he had to give some people a shocking lesson.

"No problem, Xiao Gu. An examination team will be established from now on, and you will serve as the team leader, responsible for all examination affairs."

Gu Qiming's face lit up with joy. His goal had finally been achieved; he could now almost completely sideline Zhuang Zhongchen. Honestly, besides those exams, what other important work does the vocational skills section have?

Unexpectedly, Zhuang Zhongchen continued with a smile, "We will also establish a propaganda and education team to go to various factories to promote and educate more workers, encourage and train more young workers, and help them learn more and master the skills. Old Huang."

"Hmm, uh?" Huang Ya was a little confused when he was suddenly called out.

"Old Huang, from now on you'll be the head of the propaganda team. Pick two more people. You two must do this job well."

"...Yes, it's a manipulated stock."

At this moment, the atmosphere in the office became somewhat awkward. Gu Qiming's expression immediately darkened...

Here, we need to briefly introduce the eight-level worker system.

Level 1 and Level 2 workers follow experienced masters and do odd jobs; they cannot operate independently.

In other words, there's really no difference between apprentices, level one workers, and level two workers. They're all just odd jobs.

Simply put, after completing their apprenticeship, apprentices can take the intermediate-level worker exam. (This is the fourth-level worker exam. From now on, it will be standardized as the fourth-level worker exam.)

If you pass the exam, you'll be directly certified as an intermediate-level worker; if you fail, you'll receive a consolation prize—a Level 1 worker. If a Level 1 worker keeps failing the exam but is getting old, they'll be given a consolation prize—a Level 2 worker!

So this isn't about leveling up in a game; it's not about climbing the ranks one level at a time.

That's absolutely right. Apprentices, Level 1 workers, and Level 2 workers can all directly take the Level 4 worker exam. The only difficulty is qualifying for the exam. Each company has a limited number of slots, so there's internal competition!

In other words, outstanding apprentices can directly pass the exam to become a Level 4 worker, which is like a meteoric rise!

Therefore, the idea of ​​adding experience points to upgrade a level 1 worker to a level 2 worker is just a joke made by laymen. What's the difference? Aren't we both just lowly men doing menial tasks?

After passing the Level 4 worker exam, there will be a one-year internship period, during which you will be able to operate independently under the guidance of a senior technician. So, for now, you'll be given a Level 3 worker status.

Do you understand? A Level 3 worker is equivalent to a Level 4 trainee. After a one-year training period, one is generally automatically promoted to Level 4. A Level 4 worker is then able to operate independently.

We'll discuss the higher-level assessments later; we won't go into detail here.

Therefore, those who do not reach the intermediate level are nothing more than ants!

Strictly speaking, only those at the intermediate level or above are recognized as skilled workers by the state. All other apprentices, first-level workers, second-level workers, etc., are considered mediocre.

Back at the Vocational and Technical Skills Section of the Labor Bureau, they were in charge of the intermediate-level worker examination, which is also the fourth-level worker examination.

So what should be done about first-level and second-level workers?

The labor bureau allocates a few slots to factories each year, which you decide internally. The list is then submitted to the labor bureau, which usually issues certificates.

To put it bluntly: We're too lazy to take those rubbish exams. As long as your factory dares to submit it, our labor bureau will stamp it! Anyway, anyone in the know understands that this kind of certificate is completely useless.

That said, some factories are indeed very responsible in their work. Because of the limited number of positions available, not only are there limited spots for the Level 4 worker exam, but also for Level 1 and Level 2 workers, internal exams are often conducted.

Later, many people developed a misconception that factories were responsible for vocational skills exams, such as assessing first-level and second-level workers, and that they had no idea that a government agency like the Labor Bureau existed.

But in reality, those below the intermediate level are all insignificant. Isn't this kind of exam just a battle of the weak? Under normal circumstances, the labor bureau doesn't care about this at all.

However, in the early 60s, the situation became completely different.

Didn't we mention before that there were very few people taking the exam if the current employees hadn't reached the required years of service? So how much work does Gu Qiming's exam team actually have?

On the contrary, Huangya's missionary team first needs to "solve the problem of whether they even exist." Regardless of whether they are mediocre or not, they are still reserves for skilled workers. The larger the team, the better.

Moreover, giving factories more openings will satisfy superiors, factories, and especially the workers. The power involved will be greater, and there will be widespread praise from all sides…