BEIJING, March 26 -- The building of a modern vocational education system to ensure talent supply must be accelerated, China's deputy education minister Lu Xin urged on Wednesday.

A modern system will nurture hundreds of millions of engineers, high-level technical staff and high-quality laborers for China, which will help boost competitiveness for the "Made in China" brand, Lu said at a meeting.

China plans to offer "world-class" modern vocational education nationwide by 2020 to upgrade economic structure as well as improve the quality of the country's labor force and increase employment.

Measures to strengthen vocational education include giving vocational schools more independence and cultivate talent whereby schools and enterprises can jointly recruit and teach students.

The State Council, China's cabinet, also encouraged mixed ownership of schools, according to Lu.

She also called for strengthened international cooperation. "We will promote exchange between Chinese vocational schools and community colleges in the United States, and conduct cooperation with the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations."

China will also continue to carry out cooperation programs with Germany, Britain and Holland, and advance communication and cooperation with Australia, Africa and South America, according to Lu.