Shandong Polytechnic originated from Jinan Railway Machinery School, which was founded in 1951, and it was once known as Jinan Railway Institute and Jinan Railway Vocational and Technical College. It was renamed Shandong Polytechnic with the approval of Shandong Provincial People's Government in November 2010. It is the only higher vocational college affiliated to Shandong Provincial Education Department, the only one with railway industry background in Shandong province. It is one of the national backbone vocational colleges and it is the construction unit of high-level specialty group under the national“Double High-level Program”.

The college consists of School of Railway, School of Urban Rail, School of Intelligent Manufacturing, School of New Generation Information Technology Industry, School of Bioengineering, School of Civil Engineering, School of Business Management, School of Marxism Studies, the Department of Basic Education and Department of Physical Education.

The college has been cultivating a large number of specialized talents with both ability and political integrity, making great contributions to the modernization of rail transit industry and the development of regional economy and society innearly 70 years. The college has been entitled as “National Advanced Unit of Vocational Education”, “Advanced Collective of Vocational Education in Shandong Province”，“Advanced Collective of College Graduates Employment in Shandong Province”，“Shandong Spiritual Civilization Unit”，“Shandong Provincial Civilized Campus” and so on. China Central Television,Guangming Daily，China Education Daily, People's Daily and other mainstream media have reported the achievements of college for many times.