At the opening ceremony of the 6th China Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Skills Competition Finals held at Beijing Industrial Technician College on Nov. 4, cameras followed a calm figure who took the oath on behalf of all competitors. His name is Zhou Hao.

Compromise turned out to be a disaster

In August 2008, under burning sunlight, Zhou Hao embarked on a train bound for Beijing. Earlier that year he had scored 660 in the National College Entrance Exam, placing him in the top 5 of the entire Qinghai province, and good enough to knock open the doors to Tsinghua or Beida (Peking University). Initially Zhou wanted to apply for Beihang (Beijing University of Aviation & Aerospace) - he had had 'grease on his hands' from a very young age and Beihang offered many practical courses which suited his interests - but this option met with unanimous opposition from teachers and parents alike, who thought the decision was a waste of his score points.

"I was too young to stick to my opinion, and I gave up Beihang for Beida," says Zhou, who would later find the compromise much to his regret.

In the first two semesters Zhou was totally overwhelmed by the highly academic atmosphere, endless self-study sessions, and omnipresent competition, and came to realize he was something of a misfit in the environment.

"I studied Life Sciences in Beida, which was basically about theories and analysis, whereas I was more into getting my hands dirty, things more practical... We just didn't hit it off."

"I simply had no passion for the academic stuff, scientific research or whatsoever. A lot of Life Sciences students end up in grad schools, but I knew I didn't want to do that."

To overcome the confusion and anxiety caused by the mismatch, Zhou tried sitting in on classes at the engineering schools of Beida and Tsinghua, only to find the hands-on ones closed to outside students. After a failed attempt to switch to the College of Engineering in Beida due to few overlapping courses and therefore interchangeable credits, which came as another heavy blow, Zhou decided to take a year off to rethink his future path.

Time off didn't bring him any closer to Beida

During his year off campus, Zhou went to Shenzhen and worked as a telephone operator and assembly line worker. With neither professional expertise nor social skills, he came into contact with the harsh realities of life for the first time.

"People are not going to respect you or give you another chance just because you're a university student," says Zhou, recalling the lesson he learned in the southern city.

He assumed the frustration he had experienced would push him closer to campus life in Beida and make him reevaluate the major he had disliked. But when he went back things did not turn out the way he had expected. He simply felt more uncomfortable with his studies and the moment came when he decided he was not meant for life sciences at all, and set about looking for a technical college that could meet his needs.

" Since I first entered Beida I had always kept an eye on some of the technical institutes in China, and I had done some research on the development of CNC technology (computer-controlled manufacturing machinery) in Germany and China. I also had some preliminary understanding of the CNC market in China," said Zhou.

"I thought that China is currently in desperate need of talented people with the right knowledge and skills. In Germany, many technical workers have a higher education; in China, few are very well-educated." This is the the gap that Zhou decided he wanted to bridge.