URUMQI -- A total of 3,300 students from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will attend vocational schools in inland cities as part of a program to increase the number of skilled workers in the region.

Of the students, 88.5 percent are from agricultural or pastoral areas in Xinjiang, according to the student enrollment office. This year, 15,658 students applied for the program, 1,085 more than last year.

Beginning 2011, students from Xinjiang have been able to apply to courses at 33 vocational schools located in nine municipalities and provinces in the central and eastern regions.

So far, the schools have enrolled more than 18,000 students, of whom more than 9,000 have graduated.