Abstract: The development of gemmology vocational education in the ethnic areas of western Yunnan plays an important role in promoting the economic development of gems and jade industries in western Yunnan.A field investigation was conducted in the ethnic areas in western Yunnan and the result found that although the vocational education in western Yunnan has made certain progress under the background of China's strong support for vocational education, it still faces many urgent problems. For example, there is still much room for improvement in the job satisfaction of educational practitioners.Simultaneously, students' motivation and interest in learning need to be further guided and stimulated, and students' confidence in employment needs to be further strengthened. In addition, the hardware facilities for teaching need to be further improved and the utilization efficiency needs to be improved. Based on this, the research team carefully analyzed the specific reasons for these problems with the data collected through investigation, and put forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions: improving the coordination of mechanism and faculty construction standards; establishing a learning incentive mechanism with the characteristics of gemmology vocational education in western Yunnan; putting career planning education throughout the whole education process; implementing the "1+X" certificate system; conducting in-depth school-enterprise cooperation to enhance the independent income generation ability of colleges.