Practical teaching is an important part of the whole teaching system of civil engineering, and it plays the key role in cultivating students' engineering ability and innovation ability. Aiming at the development needs of local economic construction and talent demand, Guilin University of Technology clarifies the general idea of professional development. Taking professional assessment as a chance, around the core of training students' engineering ability and innovation ability, civil engineering practical teaching system has been reformed and optimized through a series of related initiatives, including building a platform of school-enterprise cooperation, increasing funding for practical teaching, deepening second classroom education, and strengthening construction of rules and regulations. Those have achieved obvious effects and laid a good foundation for training civil engineering technical and management personnel with engineering and innovation ability.