Abstract: The large-scale establishment of education through craft training institutions was an important social reform measure in the New Policies of the Late Qing Dynasty. The emergence of education through craft training institutions did not begin in the Late Qing. However, before the New Policies period, the development of education through labor was localized, and these institutions’ geographical distribution was limited, and mainly concentrated in the developed provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang. After the start of the New Policies, the Qing government paid more attention to education through labor because it was closely linked to the development of industry, reformation of the prison system, and social improvement. There developed a top-down, institutionalized driving mechanism for the setting up of the education through labor institutions. Furthermore, the expansion of local finances and the broadening of local elites’ participation meant that more areas had the ability to set up such institutions. Therefore, the education through labor institutions was expanded to the whole country, and the provinces with strong administrations and executive ability, such as Zhili and Shandong, became the regions with the fastest development of the education through labor system in the New Policies period.