China's robotics industry is looking for more workers. Yes, human ones. From American

public media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty Carrino. China recently came out with its latest five-year plan for growth, which will guide the world's second largest economy through 2030.

In it, top Communist Party leaders have pushed to boost the country's strength in manufacturing to the next level by upgrading older factories

with advanced technologies for automation. The challenge, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education,

is that the sector has tens of millions of open jobs because there aren't enough skilled

workers in the labor force to fill them.

One robotics upskilling school is trying to bridge that gap.

Marketplaces China correspondent Jennifer Pack visited and sent this report from eastern Nanjing City.

The training center called Jinancheu gives hands-on experience with industrial robots.

At a robotics class, students are handed paper, printed with rectangles and circles.

Today's task, program the robotic arms to trace the shapes.

Mastering these robots is key.

Industrial robots are in many Chinese factories. These factories have been automating as the labor pool shrinks. And, says the training center's founder, Liu Zhenglong,

many young people don't want to do basic factory jobs. So manufacturing is turning from labor

intensive to technology intensive.

So, the school is training automation engineers.

Take the iPhone, for example.

It's manufactured in China by Foxcon, but who built the production line for the iPhone.

It was another company with automation engineers, like the ones we train. And once the production line for the iPhone. It was another company with automation engineers, like the ones we train.

And once the production lines arrive at Foxcon, they need someone to calibrate, operate,

and repair the machines.

We also train those folks.

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