Hunan Vocational College of Railway Technology (HVCRT), which founded by former Ministry of Railways in 1956, was transferred from China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd to People’s Government of Zhuzhou city and supervised by Department of Education of Hunan Province in 2004. In 2005, HVCRT upgraded to a full-time higher vocational education college. In August 2013, HVCRT moved to Zhuzhou Vocational Education Mega Center. The new campus covers an area of 620 mu (41.3 hectares), with a building area amounting to 240,000m². With more than 12,000 full-time vocational students, HVCRT is a resource-saving and environment-friendly college. In the past 65 years, HVCRT has cultivated over 100,000 professionals for rail transit industry and trained more than 200,000 staff for railway enterprises, which makes it enjoying a good reputation in China for its specialties and faculties.  

To meet the requirements of rail transit industrial chain, HVCRT has set up 5 schools, including School of Railway Locomotive, School of Railway Rolling Stock, School of Railway Transportation Management and Economics, School of Railway Engineering and Information and School of Railway Power Supply and Electronics. HVCRT offers 28 programs including 4 national characteristic specialties and 3 provincial characteristic specialties. The college has founded in-depth cooperation relationship with over 700 enterprises and public institutions including state-owned enterprises such as China State Railway Group Co., Ltd (China Railway), CRRC, and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC). HVCRT has established a batch of teacher training bases for vocational education, national virtual simulation centers for student internship and training, innovation centers, “Master of Craftsmanship” studios and 2 provincial innovation platforms—Academician Workstation led by Liu Youmei Academician and High-speed Railway Operation Safety Engineering Technology Research Center of Hunan Province.

The employment rate of HVCRT graduates has exceeded 95% for 5 consecutive years. In response to Belt & Road Initiative, HVCRT has worked with China Corporation to establish East-Africa (Kenya) Railway Training Base, it has worked with Universiti Kuala Lumpur to co-construct Malaysia-UniKL Rail Transit Talent Training Center of HVCRT, it has worked with Sripatum University to establish ASEAN（Thailand）Railway College. HVCRT has also worked with Ethiopia and Uganda government to establish 6 oversea teaching centers. HVCRT has developed 8 programs teaching standards, 52 curriculums standards and 60 vocational education standards for Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway and the universities in Thailand and Malaysia. It has good reputation for international corproation. HVCRT is now in the transition from “pathfinder” to “leader” in the perspective of International Education of the vocational colleges. In 2019, HVCRT was awarded 2019 Top 50 Asia-Pacific Vocational Colleges. In 2020, HVCRT was awarded 2020 Top 50 World Competitiveness of Chinese Vocational Colleges.

HVCRT has been approved to take part in Vocational College Excellence Project of Hunan Province and it also is a model vocational college of Hunan Province. In the comprehensive evaluation conducted by the Minister of Education, HVCRT was ranked into “Excellent” level.  HVCRT is one of the first batch of national pilot units of Education Informatization, one of the first batch of national Digital Campus Experimental Colleges, one of the first batch of national pilot colleges of Logistics Management and one of the second batch of Industrial Robot Application Programming “1+X” certificate system pilot colleges, one of the first batch of Education Informatization and Innovation pilot colleges of Hunan Province, one of the first batch of excellent pilot colleges for students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the leading college of Southern Railway Transportation Vocational Education Group. HVCRT is a top 10 vocational colleges in Hunan province in terms of social service contribution, student management, teaching resources and cultural construction.

The Southern Railway Transportation Vocational Education Group led by HVCRT is a cross-regional, cross-industry and cross-level vocational education group approved by the Department of Education of Hunan Province. The group members include south railway groups like China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd, China Railway Shanghai Group Co., Ltd, China Railway Wuhan Group Co., Ltd, China Railway Nanchang Group Co., Ltd, China Railway Nanning Group Co., Ltd, China Railway Kunming Group Co., Ltd, more than 30 metro groups such as Changsha Metro Group Co., Ltd, Shenzhen Metro Group Co., Ltd., famous railway equipment manufacturing enterprises like CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd, scientific research institutions such as China Academy of Railway Sciences (CARS) and CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, railway associations, specialized secondary schools, vocational colleges and rail transit professionals training bases. Generally, it is a group that cooperates to cultivate rail transit and urban metro professionals. The group implements the principles of mutual construction and sharing on faculties, internship & training bases and teaching resources, which makes it an entity platform for educational collaboration, talents-cultivation collaboration, cooperative development and cooperative employment.

Employers involving in the process of cultivation and examination all the time, most of HVCRT students are cultivated by order-oriented principle. The college adopts semi-military management and the Dual-Certificate (diploma and skills certificate) graduation system. The graduates of railway and urban metro transit programs are mainly devoted to the field of high-speed railway, general speed railway, inter-city railway, urban metro and special railway operation for large mines enterprises. Other specialties are facing equipment manufacturing enterprises.

HVCRT has cooperated with China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd and CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd to establish the first national vocational college Rail Transit Internship and Training Base (Rail Transit Internship & Training Yard and Rail Transit Internship & Training Center). Rail Transit Internship & Training Yard is a comprehensive training rail yard that integrates 6 systems: railway operation management, locomotive, engineering, signals, vehicles and power supply. Up to 2021, the total length of this line reaches 3.4 kilometers, with a total investment of 550 million yuan. There are 7 practical training buildings laid out along the yard, containing 95 training rooms for urban rail train driving, train dispatch and command etc. It also has 5 practical training centers, and the area of training grounds is over 100,000m². Each year, HVCRT carries out professionals training for rail transit enterprises, pre-service training for college students, adult education, vocational skills appraisal and skill competitions for rail transit enterprises for tens of thousands of people.