NINGBO, Nov. 16 -- China has built the world's largest engineering education system, Wu Yan, deputy minister of education, told a meeting held in east China's Zhejiang Province on Thursday.

Over the past decade, China's engineering education has witnessed accelerated growth, injecting new momentum into innovation-driven development, Wu told the International Engineering Education Symposium 2023 in the city of Ningbo.

The number of engineering programs in China's undergraduate education has exceeded 23,000, with more than 6.7 million undergraduate students majoring in engineering, the official said.

He urged for the continuous optimization of engineering majors and the training of outstanding engineers who can adapt to and lead future developments in engineering technologies, so as to provide strong support for industrial upgrading.

"Establishing a mechanism for joint training of talents with enterprises is a path we must follow in engineering education," Wu said.