Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest tertiary institution has signed an arrangement with China to work together on vocational training.
The arrangement between Te Pūkenga – NZ Institute of Skills and Technology and China Center for International People-to-People Exchange (CCIPE) will include talent cultivation, cross credits, student exchanges and academic visits.
The Memorandum of Arrangement (MoA) signed at Parliament last night establishes the New Zealand-China Vocational Cooperation and Development Alliance, a framework for discussing and enhancing further cooperation between vocational training sectors in both countries.
“The MoA signed at such a high level with China shows the strength of a national vocational training organisation allowing us to explore even stronger links with Chinese providers for mutual benefit,” says Te Pūkenga Deputy Chief Executive – Learner & Employer Experience and Attraction, Andrew McSweeney.
The arrangement was signed by Director General, Department of International Cooperation and Exchange, Ministry of Education, Liu Jin and Mr McSweeney – on behalf of Te Pūkenga – at the New Zealand-People’s Republic of China 11th Joint Working Group on Education and Training.
It identifies areas for co-operation and collaboration, including:
- Talent cultivation in a range of professional areas, particularly early childhood education, cross border e-commerce, new energy vehicles, healthcare for the elderly and culinary arts.
- Supporting and promoting a skilled labour force and laying a solid foundation for young people in China and New Zealand to upgrade their technical skills through ‘people-to-people’ interaction.
- Cross credit recognition, Internships, Student exchanges, Academic visits, Teaching and Learning competitions promoting improvement of student vocational skills.
- Collaborative Research including joint research forums, curriculum development, training programmes, faculty and ‘people-to-people’ exchanges and activities.
Te Pūkenga is a major outcome of Government reform of vocational education (RoVE). The reforms acknowledge the importance of a strong, high quality, interconnected skills training system to future economic growth and prosperity.
The network delivers on-campus, online and in-working learning to 270,000 ākonga (learners) through business divisions stretching from Te Tai Tokerau | Northland to Murihiku | Southland.
Currently, the divisions hold sixty-six active partnerships with education providers in China including between Ara and Shenyang Jianzhu University, Jinhua Polytechnic and Wintec; Hunan University of Technology and NMIT; Qi Lu University of Technology and EIT; Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College and NorthTec; Shandong University of Finance and Economics and Unitec.
“Collectively, there is a lot of experience and understanding in the network of what it takes to care for and deliver successfully to Chinese students both as international learners and in their home country and we are excited to take that to the next level with the scale we now have as Te Pūkenga,” says Mr McSweeney.
“The work we will do through the new alliance is based on enhancing the already strong reputation New Zealand vocational education and our qualifications have internationally. Te Pūkenga is excited about the benefits the arrangement can offer learners, staff, industries and communities in China and Aotearoa.”
The MoA has been signed as China and New Zealand increase emphasis on vocational skills training within their education systems to raise productivity and meet the future needs of key industries.
CCIPE is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.