Mr. Huang Yanpei once called vocational education "eating education" vividly, and firmly grasped the essential characteristics of vocational education. The process of socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics is a process of realizing new-type urbanization and rural revitalization, which requires hundreds of millions of modern industrial workers and new-type professional farmers. In Huang Yanpei′s vocational education thought, a series of expositions on the object of vocational education, the purpose of vocational education, and the method of vocational education have important guiding significance for the current reform and development of vocational education. Inheriting Huang Yanpei′s thought of civilian vocational education has an important enlightenment effect on correctly understanding the function of vocational education, the way of combining education and training, and the status of secondary vocational education. Our country should increase investment in vocational education, carry out large-scale training for migrant workers, and accelerate the implementation of the apprenticeship system with Chinese characteristics.