Vocational education links with China boosted

The arrangement agrees to more collaborative research projects, joint programmes (including the delivery of New Zealand qualifications in China), knowledge-sharing symposia and education development opportunities between New Zealand and Chinese institutions.

The arrangement operationalises the Model Vocational Education Programme, which was agreed to as part of the Strategic Education Partnership arrangement signed in Beijing in April last year.

The Programme has already involved two symposia, held in Qingdao and Tianjin, as well as the establishment of a virtual research centre at the Central Institute of Vocational and Technical Education in Beijing. Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) will host the third symposia in late October 2015.

The arrangement seeks to facilitate collaboration between each country’s vocational institutions.

“As China seeks to up-skill millions of its people, New Zealand can play a pivotal and mutually beneficial role in the education sector in China. The Vocational Education and Training Model Programme facilitates exchange between educational institutions in New Zealand and China to develop initiatives that are mutually beneficial for both countries,” said Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce when announcing the signing.

“Both our countries recognise the significant contribution education makes to the economic health of our nations and the longer term benefits that flow from through the increased social and cultural understanding between our two cultures,” he said. 

The Arrangement to Operationalise the Vocational Education and Training Model Programme in place between the Ministry of Education of New Zealand and the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China was signed by Vice Minister of Education Dr Hao Ping and Secretary for Education Peter Hughes.