Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

Gree Electric Appliances of Zhuhai recently set up a college to develop talents with required working abilities demanded by its high-quality development.

The college is a joint venture which leveraged Zhuhai City Polytechnic's well-established teaching system and rich school operation experience.

The new college will offer majors in Industrial Robots, Industrial Internet Technology, Big Data, and Logistics Management, and is expected to have 3,000 full-time students on campus by 2022. Some 600 Polytechnic students will be enrolled in the institute to receive concentrated training in Gree-relevant fields.

It is a big move towards enriching Gree's talent pool. The world's largest residential air-conditioner manufacturer injects fresh blood into its R&D and production lines by recruiting nearly 2,000 outstanding graduates every year. There is a multi-layer labor system full of promotion opportunities at Gree. They are encouraged to perform tasks at a high level of quality and suggest creative ideas.

Gree's intelligent workshop [Photo by Zhong Fan / Zhuhai Daily]

"Innovation is the soul of an enterprise and the driving force for corporate development," said Dong Mingzhu, chairwomen and president of Gree. "Gree is not a follower, but is committed to becoming a creator," she stressed.

Under the philosophy, a mechanism for cooperation between schools, enterprises, research institutes and governments has come into being and keeps improving through the quest for R&D breakthroughs.

At present, Gree has 12 research institutes, which asked investment of 5.7 billion yuan ($822 million) in 2017 alone and Gree was generous about it. Thanks to the heavy input, Gree now owns more than 42,000 patent applications, including 18,911 invention patents.

A heavy innovative atmosphere has differentiated Gree from other traditional appliance manufacturers in China.