Linyi youth night schools move into 115 shops to turn foot traffic into talent
The Linyi Communist Youth League has placed youth night school classes inside small shops and cafes across the city, running 380-plus sessions for nearly 10,000 young people so far and using the shops as bases for both skills training and social events.
The program, launched under the slogan "youth night schools in shops, youth socializing in shops", targets working residents under 35. Classes are held at 115 sites across municipal, county and township levels, using youth palaces, Party service centers, libraries, shopping districts and rented commercial space.
Courses are chosen from what young people ask for. In Yishui county, organizers collected 1,723 requests and grouped them into four categories — skills, cultural experience, ideological education and social integration — with e-commerce livestreaming, short-video editing and baduanjin exercise among the most popular. In Linshu county, a DIY handcraft class filled its online registration in three and a half minutes.
Classes run in small groups of 15 to 25, with feedback collected after each session to adjust course content. Teachers are drawn from universities, intangible cultural heritage inheritors, rural role models and shop owners, and students are encouraged to move from participant to teaching assistant.
"I used to scroll through my phone after work. Now I can take a class in a shop near my home, learn a skill and meet people with similar interests," one participant said.
At a guesthouse in Yishui county, which doubles as a regular teaching site and social venue, the share of customers under 35 rose from 35 percent to 62 percent and the repeat visit rate climbed 28 percentage points after the shop began hosting folk music nights, craft classes and youth social events. Yishui has set up 18 such teaching sites and formed joint Communist Youth League branches at four of them, recruiting 27 members from delivery riders, heritage inheritors and shop owners.
In Linshu county, Zhou Haiyang, a shop owner born after 2000 who runs a bakery, became a volunteer instructor for baking classes that drew strong demand. Mengyin county selected 18 shops as partner sites, using their idle evening space.
The program has also produced employment results. In Linshu, six shop owners were appointed entrepreneurship mentors to advise night school students on livestreaming sales and market stall operations, and five students have since started their own businesses.
Linyi is one of the pilot cities for China's youth development-oriented city program, which encourages cities to make housing, employment and public services more accessible to young people.
Editor：韩蒙蒙