China Coal Group’s Zhiren AI System Enters Shandong Technical Colleges to Explore New Paths for Digital Skill Talent Cultivation

On October 30, Li Zhenbo, General Manager of Information Technology at Shandong China Coal Group and General Manager of Zhongyun Group, was invited to deliver a keynote presentation at an activity organized by the Teaching and Research Group of the Shandong Province Technical and Vocational Schools Admissions and Employment (Industry-Education Integration) Center. The event brought together 23 technical and vocational schools across the province and focused on innovative integration of artificial intelligence with technical and vocational education, sharing practical achievements from the front lines of industry and jointly exploring new approaches to cultivating versatile digital-skills professionals through school-enterprise collaboration.

This teaching and research exchange brought together heads of teaching and key professional teachers from numerous technical colleges across the province to discuss major issues, including reforms in the cultivation of digital-skill talent in the context of new quality productive forces, the upgrading of integrated work-study curricula, and the alignment of industry–education resources.During the sharing session, Li Zhenbo drew on the practical implementation of Shandong China Coal Group’s self-developed China Coal Intelligent Personnel AI System. He provided a systematic explanation of how the AI system leverages large language models, a RAG knowledge base, multimodal capabilities, and an OPC operating model to connect the entire business process from customer acquisition, business development, and contract fulfillment to operation and maintenance. By assigning standardized and repetitive tasks to digital employees, the system frees human workers to focus on high-value decision-making and supports the practical implementation of a new "one person is a team" business model. The session demonstrated the tangible results achieved by AI technology in reducing costs, increasing efficiency, improving quality, and empowering operations in such scenarios as equipment manufacturing and cross-border B2B.

Li Zhenbo proposed that, as industrial positions evolve rapidly, technical and vocational education must keep pace with the trend of AI transformation and bring real-world industrial scenarios into the classroom. He suggested that the three parties—schools, enterprises, and other stakeholders—work together to: jointly build AI practical training scenarios, transform enterprises’ mature AI agent business systems into practical teaching and training platforms, and implement teaching based on "real scenarios, real tasks, and real processes"; jointly develop new courses and teaching resources for AI digital skills to address the current gap between existing curricula and industrial applications; and innovate talent co-training models to cultivate interdisciplinary digital-skills professionals who understand business, can use AI, and are proficient in hands-on operations, thereby supplying skilled craftspeople suited to new types of positions in the province’s digital economy and intelligent manufacturing industries.

Representatives from the participating institutions listened attentively to the presentations and discussed AI program development, practical training facilities, students’ employment and entrepreneurship paths, and faculty development. They agreed that the presentations offered cutting-edge examples from industry and fresh ideas for reforming programs in artificial intelligence, e-commerce, cross-border trade, and intelligent manufacturing at technical colleges. The examples also provide valuable guidance for deepening industry–education integration and improving talent development plans.

As a member of the China School-Enterprise Cooperation Alliance, a demonstration unit for industry-education integration (school-enterprise cooperation) in Shandong Province, one of the first batch of industry-education integration enterprises in Shandong Province, a deputy chairing unit of the Jining Technical Education Group, an industry-education integration demonstration base of Jining Technician College, and a practical base for internships and employment, Shandong Zhongmei Group continues to advance the research and development and industrial implementation of AI system technologies. At the same time, it actively fulfills its corporate social responsibilities, proactively connects with technical education resources, and builds a collaborative school-enterprise education platform. Going forward, the Group will continue to deepen cooperation and coordination with technical colleges in Shandong Province, promote the implementation of joint development of AI training scenarios and curricula, mutual visits by teaching staff, internships and employment, and other initiatives, establish a channel linking "industrial technology—teaching and training—skilled employment," support the digital transformation of technical education in Shandong Province, cultivate high-quality digital skills professionals across the province, and contribute the strength of Zhongmei to the growth of new quality productive forces.