Themed “mutual learning and win-win cooperation”, the Belt and Road International Conference on TVET 2018 was held in Shenzhen Polytechnic on May 11 and 12. Participants included 100 high-level education officials from 21 countries/areas and over 200 education experts and professionals.

Divided into seven sessions, the one-and-a-half-day conference focused on the discussions about the role of vocational education in the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the impact on and challenges for vocational education brought about by new technologies. The event culminated with the adoption of a key document, the Shenzhen Consensus, in which all parties agreed to enhance collaboration on vocational education.

At the closing ceremony, Shenzhen Polytechnic signed four cooperation agreements with the Technical University of Malaysia Malacca, the University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken, Germany, Hong Kong Vocational Training Council and Cambodian National Think Tank, respectively.

Shenzhen Polytechnic will establish a vocational training center and a Chinese Mandarin examination center in the Technical University of Malaysia Malacca, and send experienced teachers to Malaysia to provide training in communication engineering, logistics management, e-commerce and more.

Shenzhen Polytechnic will also become home to the UNESCO Asia-African Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the “Belt and Road Initiative” Vocational Education Center for the Chinese Society of Technical and Vocational Education. Drawing on Shenzhen Polytechnic’s extensive experience in vocational education and the industrial development of Shenzhen city as a whole, the UNESCO Asia-African Centre will be dedicated to providing training and conducting research in the Asia-African region so as to promote education in African and Asian countries.

It is reported that there are 12,100 junior vocational institutes in China, and the number of newly enrolled students and current students in these institutes respectively account for 41.97% and 39.88% of the total number of newly-enrolled and current senior-high level students. At the same time, the number of senior vocational institutes stands at 1,388, and the number of newly enrolled students and current students respectively account for 46.06% and 40.13% of the total number of newly-enrolled and current students at the higher education level.

“Reforms are needed to boost vocational education all over the world,” said Marielza Oliveira, the director and representative of the Beijing Office of UNESCO, who also believed that China could spearhead this round of changes, and proposed that governments should bridge the gap between school training and real-life professional needs by implementing educational reforms in their countries.