- Hangzhou launches training and certification for workers operating humanoids and robot dogs
- China builds a new workforce as embodied AI moves from factories into real-world jobs
Hangzhou has opened what it says is China’s first dedicated training and certification center for workers who operate and deploy embodied AI robots, as humanoids and robot dogs move into real-world applications.
The Hangzhou Embodied Intelligence Talent Training and Examination Certification Center and a related Unitree Robotics vocational training center officially opened in Hangzhou’s Binjiang district on August 16.
The move addresses a new question emerging alongside the rapid commercialization of embodied AI: who will train, operate and manage robots once they enter the workplace.
Partnering with Unitree (宇树科技), the 5,000-square-meter facility uses real robots, primarily from the Hangzhou-based robot startup, and equipment rather than simulations.
Echoing the drone sector
Its courses cover intelligent inspection, emergency response, education services, commercial guidance, data collection and secondary development.
The center has established a five-level training system and a three-certificate framework covering training, certification and employment.
The concept echoes the emergence of certified drone pilots as the drone industry matured.
Yang Jiandang (杨建党), deputy director of Zhejiang University’s Robotics Perception and Learning Laboratory, said a similar profession could emerge around embodied intelligence as demand grows.
A robotics boom in Hangzhou
The initiative comes as demand for robotics talent accelerates in Hangzhou.
The city’s 2026 list of urgently needed skilled occupations expanded the share of manufacturing and AI-related jobs from 40% to 85%.
Newly posted robotics positions in Hangzhou also increased 96.98% year on year, according to recruitment wesite Liepin.
The center is part of Hangzhou’s national AI application pilot base for embodied intelligence, combining real-world robot deployment and testing with hands-on training.
Hangzhou previously launched China’s first “robot school,” led by the Zhejiang University Institute of Robotics. It aims to equip robot hardware with practical skills, addressing the industry’s “bodies without brains” bottleneck and helping put robots to work with formal certification.
Why it matters globally
As embodied AI moves from “building robots” to “putting robots to work,” the bottleneck is increasingly shifting from hardware and models to the human infrastructure needed to deploy them.
For the global robotics industry, Hangzhou offers an early glimpse of a new labor market emerging alongside physical AI: workers trained not to be replaced by robots, but to put them to work.
