China's "Project Hope" for Elderly Care — "Qinglan Program • Neutech Cohort" Officially Launched

HONG KONG and DALIAN, China, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On September 16, 2026, at the 3rd China Nursing Home Directors Conference, the launch ceremony of the "Young Directors Growth Accompaniment Program (Neutech Cohort)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Qinglan Program • Neutech Cohort"), hailed as China’s "Project Hope" for elderly care, was officially held. Wu Yushao, president of the China Association of Social Welfare and Senior Service (CASWSS) and vice dean of Fudan Institute on Ageing; Xu Jianzhong, executive president of CASWSS; Han Hua, vice president of CASWSS; Li Jing, deputy secretary-general of CASWSS; Yang Lijun, director of the Training Center of Fudan Institute on Ageing; Wen Tao, executive director, CEO and president of Neutech Group, the special supporter for the inaugural class; and Wang Xinghui, vice president of Neutech Group and president of Neucare Health Technology, took the stage together with mentors and student representatives of the Qinglan Program to jointly witness this moment.

Finding the "Anchor" for the Industry

The initiation of the "Qinglan Program" addresses a long-repeated yet persistently unresolved issue in the industry.

Wu Yushao, president of CASWSS, pointed out that China currently has 406,000 elderly care institutions and facilities nationwide, including approximately 39,000 registered elderly care homes, with hundreds of thousands of practitioners in management positions. However, the shortage of talent in elderly care services is all-domain, all-dimensional, and long-term, with management personnel being even more scarce. What the industry lacks is not only caregivers, but also the "anchors" who can stabilize an institution — the directors.

Based on this assessment, the CASWSS, together with the Fudan Institute on Ageing, has jointly launched the "Qinglan Program", positioning it as a "Project Hope" for China’s elderly care sector. The name "Qinglan" is derived from the ancient saying "Blue comes from the indigo plant yet excels it". Here, lan represents the deep reservoir of wisdom accumulated over decades by generations of seasoned directors; qing embodies the vitality and promise of a new generation of directors. The bond between qing and lan symbolizes the passing of the torch: young directors will inherit experience from seniors and strive for self-transcendence. This is the spiritual core of the Qinglan Program.

As the special supporter of the inaugural "Qinglan Program • Neutech Cohort", Neutech Group provides resources, technological empowerment and financial backing for the initiative.

The core model of the "Qinglan Program" is "modular systematic training plus one-on-one mentorship throughout the whole process". The curricula are formulated in accordance with the "Training Outline for Nursing Home Directors (Trial)" issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. It covers four major modules: policies and industry development trends, practical service operations, practical management practices and competency building. The training lasts for three years and is fully free of charge.

From the press conference and opening of applications held at the National Convention Center in Beijing on May 18, to the receipt of 552 trainee applications and 101 mentor applications by June 30, and then to the public announcement of the proposed candidate list on August 24, over four months and more than 120 days, the "Qinglan Program" forged ahead without pause, completing its full journey from concept to execution.

Neutech’s Practice for "Education, Healthcare and Wellness"

The implementation of the "Qinglan Program" would not have been possible without the in-depth participation of Neutech.

As the special supporter of the inaugural "Qinglan Program • Neutech Cohort," Neutech Group is systematically integrating its accumulated educational resources with healthcare and wellness scenarios to form a replicable, exportable capability foundation that integrates "education, healthcare and wellness."

Twenty-six years of deep engagement in education have given Neutech Group a profound understanding: the progress of any industry ultimately comes back to the growth of people.

Since 2000, relying on Neusoft’s industrial foundation and technological strengths, Neutech Group has successively established three IT application-oriented undergraduate universities in Dalian, Chengdu, and Guangdong, cultivating more than 200,000 graduates in total. Along the way, what has been accumulated is not merely a curriculum system and teaching experience, but a simple conviction: cultivating talents is neither a hasty task nor something we can afford to delay. Today, that conviction is being brought into the elderly care industry.

President Wen Tao stated that the professional competence of a director does not merely impact a single position, but the quality of life of hundreds of elderly residents within an organization. Supporting a young director lights up one institution; illuminating hundreds of such institutions may well revitalize an entire industry.

Drawing on this insight, Neutech has systematically opened up its accumulated education, healthcare and wellness resources to learners of the "Qinglan Program". Its self-operated physical facilities including "Wecare Family" Nursing Home, Ruikang Cardiovascular Hospital and Stomatological Hospital and Neutech Phoenix College serve as on-site practical training for program learners. Access accounts to the integrated medical, wellness, and elderly care smart system are provided to learners, helping them build data-driven management mindsets. Smart wellness IoT training equipment and online courses are made available in tandem. The ecological resources and operational scenarios of the city-level smart wellness platform enable participants to connect community-based and home-based elderly care services.

In Wen Tao’s view, this is not a one-way transfer of capabilities, but deep interaction between the enterprise and the industry. The enterprise shares its expertise with the industry, while the industry feeds back real demand to the enterprise. Both sides grow together through continuous exchange and adaptation.

A Testament to Long-Termism

The future belongs to human-AI collaboration. Technology empowers administration, and data drives decision-making. Yet the warmth of services, the judgment of the management, and the soul of an institution ultimately come from people. Young directors act as the critical bridge linking technology with human warmth, and data with humanity. Cultivating such talents lays the most solid foundation for a new elderly care ecosystem built on human-AI collaboration.

The industry, its services, and the elderly population it serves are all evolving. With the "Qinglan Program" as its anchor, Neutech focuses not only on the personal development of hundreds of young directors, but also on the systematic development of core capabilities across the elderly care industry. As more and more young directors run their institutions with a shared, scientific, systematic and human-centered approach, the norms and quality standards of the whole industry may be rewritten.

To address the uncertainties of the times through steady capacity building, marking the original aspiration of the "Qinglan Program", as well as Neutech’s long-term commitment to the cause of elderly care.

Media Contact: 
Lin Wei
weilin@neuedu.com
+852 37953236