Department of Light Industry and Chemical Engineering is one of the main departments of the college. There are six majors offered for tertiary vocational education in the department, namely Food Biotechnology (including the four directions of Chinese liquor technology, brewing technology, nutrition and food safety, food processing), Biopharmaceutical Technology (including the two directions of drug marketing & management and drug production & quality control), Printing Technology (including the two directions of digital printing and printing technique design), Printing Graphic Information Processing (including the two directions of multimedia and graphic media), Industrial Analysis and Testing, Food Storage and Transportation & Marketing. Because of the high demand for such talents and the favorable quality of employment of these majors, ten directions are offered for four majors of the department to meet the requirements of market. Currently, there are over 1000 students studying in the department.
In the department, there is an excellent and extremely qualified faculty team of 34 full-time teachers and part-time teachers (also involved in administration), of which 20% have a Master’s degree or above, 90% are associate professors or lecturers and over 80% are “dual-qualification” teachers. Among these teachers, there are members of Guizhou Food Experts Committee, the Food Biotechnology Branch of Committee of Higher Vocational and Technical Education for Food and the branch of Committee of Higher Vocational and Technical Education for Light Industry. Up to now, the teachers of the department have published many text books for higher vocational education and over 200 theses.
The department has good conditions for performing experiments and practical training. The on-campus practical training base is complete in function and well-equipped. Currently, it has a 1690 m2 practical training building, in which there is a computer room equipped with 60 computers, organic and inorganic labs for food processing and storage, bio-chemical labs, microbe labs, analytical chemistry labs, food technology labs, pharmaceutical technology labs, industrial analysis labs, the No.1 and No.2 Labs equipped with sophisticated instruments, fermentation research labs, sterile rooms, simulation labs for printing and chemical engineering principles. The sophisticated instruments housed there are worth more than 5 million RMB, including atomic absorption spectrometers and spectrophotometers, gas chromatography workstations, ultraviolet spectrophotometers, fermenters, biochemical incubators, microscopes, single punch tablet presses, coating machines, etc. In 2009, the department was endowed with 2.6 million RMB with the central government’s financial support for the construction of the food biological base and the analysis & testing center.
The department has been strengthening its contact with scientific research institutions, companies and enterprises, aiming at improving its serving abilities. In the meantime, it has established good cooperative and reciprocal relationships with renowned enterprises in and out of the province and has established dozens of bases for practical training, industrial attachment and work placement out of the college. It has established school-enterprise cooperative relationships with 30 enterprises, including Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd., Guizhou Jinsha Wine-cellar Co., Ltd., Guizhou Green Wine Group, Beijing Ruihe Color Printing Co., Ltd., Guizhou Xinhua Printing Factory, Guizhou Daily Printing Factory, Guizhou Jingjia Novel Packaging & Printing Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Aoyang Industrial Group, Guizhou Yibai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Guiyang Jirentang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Guiyang Dechangxiang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Maqika Pharmaceutical, Hsu Fu Chi International Ltd., etc. It has been cultivating talents to order for such big enterprises as Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited and Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd. The external practical training bases have given big support for the training of students’ practical abilities. The department has cultivated nearly 2000 skilled talents in front line for Guizhou’s Chinese liquor enterprises with Kweichow Moutai as the flagship. Once as one of the Chinese liquor training bases in Guizhou, the department has hosted several nation-wide Chinese liquor training classes for backbones. It has been running sorts of training classes for towns and enterprises. Moreover, it has been carrying out the training and certification of food testing, Chinese liquor brewing and drug testing for food manufacturers, laid-off workers, migrant workers from rural areas and schools in Guizhou.
The students of the department have gained the second, the fourth and the fifth places in 2010 Guizhou 1st Printing Skills Competition. Six contestants ranked in the top ten. Among the award-wining students, two were recommended to participate in the 2nd National Printing Skills Competition and ranked the third.
The department always lays emphasis on the combination of theories and practice in an effort to make students develop in an all-round way in virtue, intelligence, sporting and art so as to make them be technical and managerial talents with advanced practical skills, strong modern consciousness and the spirit of innovation. Up to now, many graduates of every major have become backbones in enterprises. In recent years, the employment rates of the department have been above 95%.
