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Zhejiang has provided skills training to 695,300 people, including 567,900 people from small and micro businesses and 127,400 people from individual businesses, over the past three years, according to the Provincial Administration for Market Regulation.

The various training programs have significantly improved the skills and quality of employees from small, micro and individual businesses, and boosted their ability to find employment and start their own businesses, the administration said.

Statistics show that there were about 8.69 million market entities in Zhejiang province by the end of December 2021, including roughly 2.83 million small and micro businesses and 5.49 million individual businesses, accounting for 96 percent of the total.

In early 2019, Zhejiang launched a three-year campaign to update vocational skills for at least 300,000 employees of small and micro businesses. This initiative was extended to individual businesses in 2020.

Based on the needs of local industries, targeted training programs have been designed and offered accordingly. For example, workers in the auto parts and plumbing industries in Taizhou city's Yuhuan county have been receiving extensive skills training support. In 2021, the total output of these two industries reached 47.01 billion ($739 million) and 43.16 billion yuan respectively, up 12.83 and 16.82 percent year-on-year.

In Hangzhou, well-known livestreamers have been invited to conduct courses on selling products through livestreaming.

For 2022, the Provincial Administration for Market Regulation plans to train at least another 100,000 people from small, micro and individual businesses.