From October 26th to 28th, the 2023 China Annual Conference & Expo for International Education hosted by the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) was held in Beijing. As the chairman member of the Vocational Education Committee of CEAIE, the parallel forum “Co-construction and Sharing, Digital Empowerment: Exploring a New Path for Vocational Education Going Global” was successfully held on the afternoon of October 27th. An Yan, Deputy Secretary General of CEAIE, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Xie Yonghua, chairman of the Vocational Education Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of NJUIT, presented a keynote speech, and Sun Yanfei, Member of the Standing Party Committee and Vice President of NJUIT, moderated the forum and topic discussion. Nearly 200 guests from governments, universities, industries and enterprises across the globe attended the forum.
An Yan, Deputy Secretary General of CEAIE, extended congratulations on the success of the forum. She pointed out that vocational education will always follow the development of the industry. With Chinese enterprises extending their reach all over the world in recent years, China’s vocational education is more and more active on the international stage, and it is the right time now for “vocational education to go global”. To promote the upgrade of “vocational education going global” from vigorous development to high-quality development, firstly, we must adhere to the integration of industry and education, and deeply bind vocational colleges with cooperative enterprises to truly achieve “teaching with production and college-enterprise going hand-in-hand”; secondly, we must adhere to joint construction and sharing, and the coordinated integration with the economy, the society and educational resources of partner countries, and achieve joint construction and sharing of educational resources at home and abroad, as well as mutual benefits of and win-win cooperation in education and economy; thirdly, vocational colleges must adhere to high-quality education, always follow their goals, put quality at the first place, monitor the quality throughout the whole process, and regular review and evaluate their school-running results.
Xie Yonghua delivered a keynote speech titled “Create a New Track for the Opening up of China’s Vocational Education: Practical Exploration and Development Path of Vocational Education Going Global”. He systematically introduced the existing results, challenges and improvement directions of “vocational education going global” from three aspects: foundation and demand, exploration and practice, and challenges and paths. He pointed out that “vocational education going global” has a solid foundation at home, strong demand abroad, and plenty of references overseas. According to the practical cases of exploring “vocational education going global” by NJUIT, he believed that the high-quality and sustainable development of vocational education going global was inseparable from the training of local teachers, the integration of teaching resources and the development of vocational education standards. He said that NJUIT is willing to work with colleagues in vocational education around the world to build a platform for vocational education development, share the results of development, and promote exchanges and mutual learning in vocational education between China and other countries.
Sun Yanfei mentioned that “vocational education going global” is an important topic for the high-quality development of vocational education in the new era. This forum has brought together guests from different regions, institutions and industries to share and explore the commonalities and differences of the new paths of vocational education going global. On the new journey of ushering in higher quality and higher level development of the “Belt and Road” Initiative, “vocational education going global” will surely have great prospects. In the next step, NJUIT will cooperate with all member units to give full play to their own advantages, serve the national strategy, closely focus on our competitive majors to promote vocational education “going global”, and boost the high-quality development of “vocational education going global”.
The topic discussion was divided into two stages. The first stage was around the theme of “‘Teaching with Production and College-Enterprise Going Hand-in-hand’, a New Path for Vocational Education Going Global”. Wang Hailong, President of Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences; Wan Jian, Secretary of Party Committee of Jiangsu Maritime Institute; Zhou Shen, Principal of Wuhan Technical College of Communications; Ni Yonghong, Principal of Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute; and Zhou Yan, Vice President of Beijing Polytechnic College, shared their institutions’ practices and achievements in exploring new paths for vocational education going global. Sun Ming, Deputy Dean of PSB Academy in Singapore, and Wang Junwei, Chairman of Cambodia Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. / Cambodia Power Grid Company Limited, respectively introduced the experiences and practices of Singapore and Cambodia in promoting college-enterprise cooperation in vocational education going global.
In the second stage, representatives from all walks of life exchanged their ideas on the “Internationalization of Vocational Education Empowered by Digital Technologies”. Xu Jianjun, President of Changzhou College of Information Technology; Peng Kaiqin, Vice President of Wuhan Railway Vocational College of Technology; Zhang Zhiqing, Vice President of Anhui Vocational and Technical College; and Zhan Qianjiang, Vice President of Guizhou Communications Polytechnic respectively introduced their exploration and practices in promoting the international development of vocational education in the context of digital economy. Jensen, Training Director of the Delegation of German Industry ; Commerce in Shanghai; Luo Guanghao, Executive Vice President of the Federation of Khmer Chinese in Cambodia, and Yu Taek Lee, Dean of SolBridge International Business School, Woosong University, presented the experiences and practices of Germany, Cambodia and the Republic of Korea in the internationalization of vocational education empowered by digital technologies. Huang Hua, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Nanjing Polytechnic Institute, hosted the second stage.
With the theme of “Advance and Connect: Converging the Power of Education”, the annual conference aims to build an international education cooperation and exchange platform for educators and representatives from all walks of life in China and the world to enlighten wisdom, share experience, discuss cooperation and connect resources. This forum discussed in depth how vocational colleges can explore the new paths of “teaching with production and college-enterprise going hand-in-hand” and vocational education going global in the digital era. Through this forum, the guests discussed how to better navigate the development of vocational and technical education in the digital era, summed up the successful experience of “vocational education going global”, and analyzed the problems and challenges faced by the internationalization of vocational education. The success of the forum also represents a useful exploration in promoting exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and overseas vocational education, promoting joint development and sharing of vocational education, and promoting the high-quality development of “vocational education going global”.
Speech by An Yan
Keynote speech by Xie Yonghua
Sun Yanfei hosting the forum
Scene of the forum
(International Cooperation and Exchange Division
Content / Wang Yuying
Edit / Chen Lu
Review / He Zhengying)
