Summary
On March 30, 2026, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security issued the “Skills Enhancement Year Action Plan,” which includes a dedicated “AI Promoter” initiative targeting 50,000 trained and certified AI Promoters across all sectors in 2026. The plan is aligned with the municipal government’s 2026 “skills enhancement year” initiative and covers subsidised vocational skills training with a goal of 650,000 person-times of subsidised training overall.
Key Details
- Policy issuer: Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security
- Date issued: March 30, 2026
- AI Promoter target: Complete training and certification for 50,000 AI Promoters in 2026
- AI Promoter initiative scope: “Equip people across sectors with AI skills and strengthen AI literacy among the public”
- Training format: Online and offline combined, including on-the-job drills and skills competitions
- Broader training target: 650,000 person-times of subsidised vocational skills training in 2026, covering AI, integrated circuits, biomedicine, elderly care, and domestic services
- High-skilled workers target: Add 60,000 high-skilled workers with skills evaluation certificates at senior-worker level or above
Policy Mechanism
The plan calls for updating training standards and assessment question banks for the AI Promoter certification, exploring combined online/offline training models, and organising on-the-job drills and skills competitions. The plan also calls for accelerating legislative work for skilled talent development, including seeking public input on a legislative draft — suggesting future binding obligations are being considered.
Relevance
This is the first identified Shanghai-specific government initiative to directly provide publicly subsidised AI literacy training to the general workforce, going beyond the national MOE education framework. The 50,000 AI Promoter target, paired with broader subsidised training, represents a government-funded public access mechanism for AI literacy. No legal employer training obligation is created; participation is voluntary and incentivised through subsidy and certification.
Score Implications
- Dimension 13 (Free or publicly funded AI literacy resources for the general population): Evidence supports moving from 0 to 1 — the government is funding AI Promoter training and subsidising vocational skills training at scale (50,000 AI Promoters, 650,000 subsidised training instances), though no universal free access programme exists.