Recently, the Jinhua International Communication Center was unveiled and established. Butterfly, a Rwandan student majoring in e-commerce at Jinhua Vocational and Technical University, was hired as the “Jinhub International Communication Ambassador”. After returning to school, she couldn’t wait to share the good news with her fellow countrymen: “Let’s tell the good story of Jinhua to the world together.”
As one of the first pilot colleges in the country for the “Future Africa-China-Africa Vocational Education Cooperation Plan” project, Jinhua Vocational and Technical University welcomed 30 Rwandan students in April this year, and Butterfly was one of them. In the more than half a year of studying in Jinhua, this group of international students went to the market, explored industries, learned technology, and became anchors. They witnessed the city’s promotion of non-vocational education and the deep friendship between Chinese and African youth. Not long ago, Butterfly’s classmate Philiming won the highest score in the 9th African Vocational Skills Challenge in 2024.
Seeing this group of Rwandan students grow in Jinhua, Xu Tengfei, director of the International Cooperation and Exchange Department of Jinhua Vocational and Technical University, was very pleased. He said: “Jinhua’s vocational education in Africa has not only improved the technical skills of African youth, but also promoted cultural exchanges and people-to-people exchanges between China and Africa, laying a solid foundation for future capacity cooperation between the two places.”
In July 2017, Jinhua Vocational and Technical University connected with the national education aid project and established Musanze International College at Musanze College in Rwanda, establishing a “school-government-school-enterprise-school-school” collaborative “going out” African school-running model, supporting the construction of a “Chinese + vocational skills” vocational education and training resource library, and building two digital platforms, the Chinese Language Learning Center and the Skill Development Center. It has trained 358 highly skilled talents in the fields urgently needed by Rwanda, trained more than 10,000 Rwandan youth and Chinese enterprise employees, and cultivated nearly 100 Rwandan teachers. Chen Hairong, vice president of Jinhua Vocational and Technical University, said: “The cooperation between Jinhua and African countries in vocational education has always been a golden name card for Sino-African educational exchanges and cooperation. We must strive to form a replicable, referenceable and popularizable model for the training of technical and skilled talents in Africa, and further enhance the international influence of Chinese vocational education.”
In the wave of vocational education “going overseas”, in addition to Jinhua Vocational and Technical University, Yiwu Industrial and Commercial Vocational and Technical College, Zhejiang Guangsha Construction Vocational and Technical University and other colleges and universities in our city are also very active.
Based in the world’s small commodity capital, Yiwu Industrial and Commercial Vocational and Technical College has enrolled 1,124 international students from 38 African countries since 2007, and has trained a large number of high-quality business talents for Sino-African economic and trade. Guinean student Diallo once studied at the International Education College of the school. After graduation, he established Yiwu Danta Trading Co., Ltd., which mainly engages in import and export business, selling small commodities to Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia and other countries, with annual sales exceeding 30 million yuan. He said: “The school allows us to become international new Yiwu businessmen with virtue, affection and righteousness.”
In the past three years, African international students of Yiwu Vocational and Technical College of Industry and Commerce have won awards in various innovation and entrepreneurship competitions in the province and city. More and more African international students choose to start businesses and find jobs in Yiwu after completing their studies. In October 2023, the school also cooperated with the University of Mondiapolis in Morocco to run an overseas branch – Yiwu Business School in Morocco, and jointly carried out the training of international trade talents, big data technology talents, and e-commerce talents.
Zhejiang Guangsha Construction Vocational and Technical University has taken advantage of the industrial advantages of Dongyang wood carving, a national intangible cultural heritage, and launched the “New Silk Road International Student Recruitment Plan” to explore the path of Sino-African cooperation in running schools. In 2018, the school cooperated with the Ministry of Forestry of the Republic of Congo to recruit the first batch of Congolese international students, becoming the first higher vocational college in the province to recruit international students in the field of arts and crafts. In the past five years, it has successively recruited more than 60 African international students. At the end of March this year, the school cooperated with Congo (Brazzaville) Sassou University to jointly build the “China-Congo Silk Road College”, focusing on all-round cooperative education around talent training, skills training, and cultural exchanges.
Bu Yuehua, president of Zhejiang Guangsha Construction Vocational and Technical University, said: “In the process of Sino-African cooperation in running schools, the school actively explored diversified vocational education “going overseas” paths such as education for international students, overseas vocational skills training, the construction of the China-Congo Silk Road College, and Sino-foreign cooperation in building master’s degree programs. It not only innovated to serve the deepening of the new Silk Road capacity of Dongyang wood carving, but also better trained more outstanding engineers and skilled craftsmen for Africa.”
In July this year, the opening ceremony of the 2024 Wufei Vocational Education Cooperation and Exchange Month and the China-Africa Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Dialogue were held. The city’s higher vocational colleges focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, capacity improvement, skills competition, cultural integration and other themes, showing the characteristics of Wufei vocational education cooperation and the implementation results of the “China-Africa Talent Training Cooperation Plan”.