BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Thursday called for deepening reforms of the country's vocational education to accelerate nurturing of highly demanded professionals.

Developing modern vocational education is required by the demand to improve human resources quality and stabilize and expand employment, as well as a major move to promote high-quality development and build a great modern country, Li said in a written instruction to a conference held on deepening reforms of vocational education.

The vocational education mechanism should be reformed and improved to meet market demands and support the upgrading of the manufacturing and service sectors, Li said.

Enterprises and social forces are encouraged to invest in developing vocation education, and support will be given to develop high-level vocational schools and representative majors, Li added.

Vocational education and general education are equally important despite their differences, said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who attended the meeting.

Sun called for more efforts to improve the social status and pay of skilled personnel, nurture teachers who excel at both theoretical knowledge and practical skills and develop leading enterprises that work with vocational schools and higher educational institutions.

China plans to expand student enrollment in vocational schools by 1 million this year.