In order to deepen the exchange and cooperation with Australia and New Zealand, further promote the education cooperation between Zhejiang Province (herein after as the province) and Western Australia (herein after as the state), and improve the well-being of the peoples, the ZJIET president Chen Dequan went to Australia and New Zealand with the education delegation of the Provincial Education Department on behalf of the chair institute of the Zhejiang-Western Australia Vocational Education Consortium (herein after as the Consortium). He also attended the ninth meeting of the Zhejiang- Western Australia Exchange Committee and a series of activities such as the Western Australia-Zhejiang Higher Education Forum.
On November 10, the ninth meeting of the Zhejiang - Western Australia Exchange Committee was successfully held in Perth, Australia. Mr. Xu Wenguang, Executive Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province, Mr. Roger Cook, Premier of Western Australia, Mr. Long Dingbin, Consul General of China in Perth, and Mr. Shu Peidong, Deputy Director General of the Education Department of Zhejiang Province, attended the meeting. Chen Dequan was invited as the chair of the Consortium to attend the meeting and sign the important agreement of cooperation. The exchange was fruitful.
At the meeting, Chen Dequan signed a cooperation agreement with the Dean of the south city TAFE College Mr. Darth Ganeson and the Dean of the north city TAFE College Ms. Michelle Hode on jointly establishing the teacher training base of the onsortium and unveiled the plate.
During the period, the two sides also exchanged views on student exchange programs, academic seminars, student competitions and so on with cooperation intentions. Chen Dequan expressed his sincere thanks to the two TAFE colleges’ efforts on and contributions to promoting the bilateral cooperation and Consortium construction, hoping that through his visit and exchange the foundation of the cooperation will be solidified and the cooperation fields expanded so as to jointly open a new page of vocational education exchanges and cooperation between the province and the state.
During the visit, the education delegation also participated in the Zhejiang - Western Australia Higher Education Forum co-sponsored by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, the Western Australian Department of Training and Workforce Development and the Western Australian Department of Education in Perth. Chen Dequan delivered a keynote speech on behalf of Chinese universities. He said that in the context of the rapid development of education globalization, international cooperation in education had become an important force driving the world progress and the global future-industry development. He expressed his hope that universities from both places could actively participate in the global education cooperation and contribute to the construction of a human community of shared future. At the meeting, the short video The Friendship between Zhejiang and Western Australia Spans Mountains and Seas, which was directed by the International Office of the Zhejiang Provincial Education Department and ZJIET. It is a review of the educational cooperation between the province and the state.
At the Vocational Education sub-Forum, Chen Dequan co-chaired the meeting as the Chinese collegiate representative with his Australian counterpart. On the seminar, in-depth exchanges were made focusing on vocational education curriculum design, teacher and student development, international education cooperation, regional economic development and so on. Again, Chen Dequan introduced the characteristic curriculum system of ZJIET that took into account regional characteristics, regional economic development and the quality of student training. He also introduced the students’ demands for flexible major choices, their skill improvement, their diploma upgrading, their internships and employment management and the ZJIET practice of enhancing teaching capacity and quality. He pointed out that in order to promote the cultivation of internationalized talents with high-quality and cross-cultural capacities, universities should strengthen international cooperation in such fields as teacher-student exchanges, teaching resource development and sharing, professional development and industrial cooperation, and academic research.
During the visit, the delegation visited Edith Cowan University, North City TAFE College, South City TAFE College and Monash University in Australia, and Auckland University of Technology and Waikato University in New Zealand. They participated in a series of academic exchange, and promoted a number of cooperation intentions.
It is reported that Zhejiang Province and Western Australia established the sister-province friendship in 1987. Since then, the two sides have had education cooperations both profound and extensive. In November 2022, under the guidance of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, Zhejiang Provincial People's Government Foreign Affairs Office and Western Australian Department of Training and Workforce Development, ZJIET took the lead in establishing the Consortium and was elected as the first chair institute. With the active cooperation of the Consortium member institutions, the Consortium had been successful up to now. In the future, under the guidance of the education administrative departments of the province and the state, ZJIET will give full play to its subjective initiative in its efforts on well organizing and coordinating of the Consortium for a better vitality and greater development to build it into an important booster for the high-quality development of vocational education in Zhejiang and Western Australia.
