The UNESCO Chair on Digitalization in TVET was officially inaugurated at SZPT

By the Xili Lake, the wise people gather together, surrounded by the Bauhinia flowers blossoming all over the garden. On March 16, the launch ceremony of UNESCO Chair on Digitalization in TVET (the “Chair on Digitalization”) & Global Forum on Digital Transformation in TVET (Shenzhen) 2023 was held in Conference Room 1, Tongde Building, Liuxiandong Campus. With the theme of “Embracing Digital Economy, Driving Digital Transformation”, the forum invited nearly 150 persons from home and abroad, including government officials, UNESCO representatives, experts, scholars and industry representatives, to share and exchange advanced theories, methods and paths for the digital transformation of vocational education.

Shahbaz Khan, Director-General of UNESCO China Office, and Qin Changwei, Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, delivered online speeches. Robert Parua, Education Officer of UNESCO China Office, Cai Maozhou, Director and Superintendent of Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, Han Wei, Executive Deputy Director of UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center, Lu Yongping, President of Huawei China Government-Enterprise Education and Medical System Department, Yang Xinbin, Secretary of the Party Committee of SZPT, and Xu Jianling, President of SZPT, attended the meeting. Representatives of over 220 members of the UNESCO Vocational Education and Training Network from more than 140 countries participated in this international academic event online.

Shahbaz Khan, Director-General of UNESCO China Office, was delivering a speech

Qin Changwei, Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, was delivering a speech

Robert Parua, Education Officer of UNESCO China Office, attended the ceremony

Cai Maozhou, Director and Superintendent of Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, was delivering a speech

Han Wei, Executive Deputy Director of UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center, was delivering a speech

Lu Yongping, President of Huawei China Government-Enterprise Education and Medical System Department, was delivering a speech

Yang Xinbin, Secretary of the Party Committee of SZPT, was delivering a speech

Xu Jianling, President of SZPT, was delivering a speech

Build an international cooperation platform to promote the high-quality development of global vocational education

Shahbaz Khan said in his speech that the UNESCO Chair is one of the key components of the UNESCO Sister University/Chair Program, and the main form of UNESCO’s promotion of research on international cooperation in global higher education, which has received high recognition and active participation from 850 institutions in 117 countries. UNESCO is committed to supporting the development of Chair on Digitalization, and will deepen its cooperation with SZPT to play a key role in promoting the development of vocational education institutions in developing countries and the construction of vocational education infrastructure, push forward the digital transformation of vocational education institutions, always keep in line with the education and employment targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Qin Changwei said that in recent years, SZPT has closely connected with the industrial layout of Shenzhen and Greater Bay Area, and worked together with first-class enterprises to build featured industry institutes, deepen the cooperation of industry, university, research and application, serve the development and reform of Shenzhen’s high-tech industry, and jointly drive the digital transformation. Remarkable achievements have been made, laying a solid foundation for the success of Chair on Digitalization. He guided the future construction direction of Chair on Digitalization from three aspects: “closely adapting to the needs of international cooperation, forming the characteristics of Chinese vocational education”, “focusing on the development strategy of UNESCO, constantly improving the level of cooperation”, and “strengthening the team building, cultivating high-level international talents”, and sincerely hoped that Chair on Digitalization could take advantage of SZPT’s professional construction and international cooperation to make new contributions to driving the digital transformation of vocational and technical education.

Cai Maozhou said that Chair on Digitalization in TVET is the first chair set up by UNESCO in Shenzhen, which indicates that Shenzhen’s vocational education community represented by SZPT has been highly recognized by the international community, marking an important step toward Shenzhen’s development goal of becoming a global benchmark city. It is hoped that SZPT will actively build an international cooperation platform for vocational education to share Shenzhen’s featured solutions and advanced technologies for the digital transformation of vocational education, thus leading and driving the digital transformation of global vocational education.

Han Wei said in her speech that SZPT has always been one of the best and most solid partners in promoting innovation of higher education and vocational education. She will continue to spare no effort to support the construction and development of Chair on Digitalization, and sincerely look forward to a more comprehensive, in-depth and continuous cooperation with Chair on Digitalization of SZPT in the future, to jointly drive the digital transformation of global higher education and vocational education and teachers’ digital capacity building, narrow the global digital divide, and help realize the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

Xu Jianling said that the college will vigorously support and promote the construction of UNESCO Chair on Digitalization in TVET, deepen and expand the comprehensive practice of digital talent training based on in-depth cooperation between schools and enterprises, effectively eliminate the digital divide in vocational education, provide a new path for the digital transformation of national and international vocational education, and make new and greater contributions to promoting the high-quality development of global vocational education.

Leaders and guests were unveiling the Chair on Digitalization

At the meeting, nearly 20 supporting organizations around the world for the Chair program sent videos or congratulatory letters to congratulate the official unveiling of Chair on Digitalization.

Lead the digital transformation of global vocational education, and keep contributing Chinese solutions

Yang Xinbin, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairholder of SZPT, delivered a keynote speech entitled “Empowering and improving quality, to be a leader of digital transformation of vocational and technical education”, elaborating on the leading measures of SZPT in the digital transformation of vocational education from six aspects, including the digitalization of majors and courses, the enhancement of teachers’ digitalization capability, the cultivation of students’ digitalization literacy, the innovation of digital teaching, the digital transformation of practical training environment, and the theoretical research of digital transformation. He said that promoting the innovation and development of vocational education through digital transformation is the historical mission assigned to vocational colleges in the new era, and also the inevitable choice for vocational education to actively implement the national strategy for digitization of education and serve the digital transformation of economy and society.

Based on the principle of “extensive consultation, joint construction, and sharing”, Chair on Digitalization will, through South-South cooperation and multi-party cooperation, carry out theoretical research on the digitalization of vocational and technical education, develop digital technology majors and teaching resource databases, promote the digital transformation of traditional majors, develop general digital technology qualification certificates and teaching standards, build an ecosystem of smart classroom and virtual practical training, strengthen the training of teachers’ digital capability, explore new technologies and methods of digital technology-enabled teaching and learning, improve the digital governance and teaching capability of vocational colleges, narrow the “digital divide”, and promote the educational equity, lifelong learning and sustainable development of global economy and society.

In the future, relying on the Chair on Digitalization as an international platform, SZPT will continue to contribute Chinese solutions and Chinese wisdom to the world, further enhance the contribution of China’s vocational education to the development of global vocational education and global sustainable development, and drive China’s vocational education to step into the center of the world’s vocational education stage as soon as possible.

Contribute insights and wisdom to help narrow the digital divide in global vocational education

Themed by “Embracing Digital Economy, Driving Digital Transformation”, this forum invited 7 experts as guest speakers, i.e. Robert Parua, Education Expert of UNESCO China Office, Sarah Elson-Rogers, Program Director of UNESCO International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Wilson Junior, Program Supervisor, Alexandra Filipova, Program Officer, Han Xibin, Vice President of the Institute of Education of Tsinghua University, Zhang Zhenbo, Vice President of Huawei China Government-Enterprise Education and Medical System Department, and Yang Xinbin, Holder of UNESCO Chair on Digitalization in TVET, to hold in-depth discussions on five topics, including the mission of UNESCO Chair on Digitalization in TVET, UNESCO digital transformation program in vocational education, characteristics and countermeasures of the digital transformation of vocational education, boosting the high-quality development of vocational education through digital technology innovation, and empowering and improving quality to be a leader of digital transformation of vocational and technical education, jointly explore the methodology and path of digital transformation in the field of vocational and technical education, and contribute wisdom to the high-quality development of global vocational education.

Leaders and guests were posing for a group photo

(Text by Asian-African Center; Image by Zhang Lei, Department of Publicity, Xie Jiakang, Convergence Media Center)