On March 17, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Vocational Education Park, jointly established by SZPT and the Hong Kong Vocational Training Council (“VTC”), opened with the first batch of 100 teachers and students officially entering the park. This is the first vocational education park actually landing in the Greater Bay Area, marking the start of the “Accelerator Key” for the development of vocational education in the Greater Bay Area to embark on the fast track.

Leaders and guests attended the opening ceremony of the vocational education park

Andrew Leung, President of the Legislative Council and former Chairman of the Council of the Vocational Training Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Christine Choi Yuk-lin, Secretary for Education of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Tony Tai, Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Vocational Training Council, Wu Junbin, Deputy Director and Vice President of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Wu Yanling, Second-level Inspector of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province, Zheng Hongbo, Member of the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee & Member of the Party Group of the Municipal People’s Government, Zheng Xiuyu, Secretary of Shenzhen Municipal Education Working Committee & Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Municipal Education Bureau, Jiang Likun, Executive Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government, Gao Dongchun, Member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Yang Xinbin, Secretary of the Party Committee of SZPT, Xu Jianling, President of SZPT, and other relevant persons attended the opening ceremony. SZPT Vice President Li Yue presided over the ceremony.

Implement the Greater Bay Area development strategy and boost the integration of Hong Kong into the overall development of our country

Andrew Leung, President of the Legislative Council and former Chairman of the Council of the Vocational Training Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attended the event

Wu Yanling, Second-level Inspector of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province, was delivering a speech

Zheng Hongbo, Member of the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee & Member of the Party Group of the Municipal People’s Government, was delivering a speech

Christine Choi Yuk-lin, Secretary for Education of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was delivering a speech

Zheng Xiuyu, Secretary of Shenzhen Municipal Education Working Committee & Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Municipal Education Bureau, was delivering a speech

Tony Tai, Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Vocational Training Council, was delivering a speech

Wu Junbin, Deputy Director and Vice President of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attended the event

Yang Xinbin, Party Secretary of SZPT, attended the event

Xu Jianling, President of SZPT, was delivering a speech

Li Yue, Vice President of SZPT, presided over the event

“The construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a major national strategy planned, deployed and promoted by the General Secretary Xin Jinping himself,” Wu Yanling said in her speech at the opening ceremony held in the morning of that day, Shenzhen’s promotion of SZPT and VTC to jointly build the vocational education park is a major landmark achievement in the high-quality development of vocational education, a model of deep integration of industry, education and research, a pioneering attempt to innovate on the vocational education cooperation in the Greater Bay Area, and a milestone for the high-quality development of vocational education in the Greater Bay Area. She hoped that Shenzhen could actively explore the construction of the park, innovate on the management system and mechanism, enrich the content of industry-education-research cooperation, and form more experience that can be copied and promoted. She also hoped that Hong Kong could give full play to its advantages in vocational education and introduce more good resources, experience and practices into the construction of vocational education parks.

Zheng Hongbo said in his speech that the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area vocational education park is an important deployment for Shenzhen to implement the “Outline of the Development Plan of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” and the “Implementation Opinions of the Ministry of Education and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province on Promoting the High-end Development of Vocational Education in Shenzhen and Striving for World-class Development”. He believed that the establishment of the vocational education park has promoted the comprehensive exchange of young people in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and the deep integration of vocational education, and provided strong support for the industrial transformation and upgrading of the Greater Bay Area and the high-end development of the service industry, which is of great significance for enriching the level of educational cooperation and improving the talent training system in the Greater Bay Area. He said that the Shenzhen Municipal Government will continue to pay attention to and support the construction of the vocational education park, join hands with Hong Kong to achieve win-win development and make greater contributions to the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the economic and social development in China.

Christine Choi Yuk-lin said that the cooperation in vocational education between Guangdong and Hong Kong is an important driving force to support the high-quality development of the Greater Bay Area and promote the alignment of Hong Kong with national development strategies. Through an innovative way of cooperation on vocational education, the vocational education park aims to cultivate more vocational talents for the Greater Bay Area by jointly setting curriculum standards, introducing teachers, joint management, awarding diplomas from both sides and launching training programs. She hoped that VTC and SZPT would make full use of the high-quality construction of the park, continue to promote the development of vocational education in the Greater Bay Area and achieve more results in cooperation in various fields.

Zheng Xiuyu said that in recent years, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have deepened their cooperation in vocational education, carried out joint training of skilled talents, and achieved good results in the cooperation of qualification framework and mutual recognition of training credits. The opening of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Vocational Education Park is an important outcome of the cooperation between the two sides, and also a powerful measure to support the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and better integrate Hong Kong and Macao into the overall development of our country. She hoped that Shenzhen and Hong Kong could cooperate more closely in the field of vocational education and jointly train more high-quality talents for our country and the economic and industrial development of the Greater Bay Area.

Innovate on vocational education modes and empower the industrial transformation and upgrading of the Greater Bay Area

The vocational education park is located in Chuangzhi Yuncheng, Liuxiandong Headquarters Base, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, covering an area of 8,930.67 square meters, with a total investment of more than 38 million Yuan, comprising the teaching area, science and innovation space, laboratory, comprehensive exhibition hall and other functional spaces. Walking into the park, desks and chairs in the office, practical training and exchange areas are orderly placed, and the strong atmosphere of practical training and research fills in every corner. The first batch of more than 100 teachers and students have realized “move-in with bag”. In the future, the park will highlight the concept of integrated development of vocational education in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, explore the training mode of connecting secondary vocational education with higher vocational education and vocational education with undergraduate level, and serve the industrial transformation and upgrading of the Greater Bay Area.

Tony Tai said that in order to support the policy direction of vocational education in the “Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”, VTC and SZPT carried out all-round cooperation on the content of the plan in 2019. After the opening of the park, VTC will continue to play a bridging role to help connect institutions and enterprises in the Mainland internally and overseas organizations externally to support the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Vocational Education Park with resources from both inside and outside, so as to foster more outstanding vocational talents for the Greater Bay Area and even the whole country.

Xu Jianling said that SZPT has a solid foundation for exchanges and cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao. Under the guidance of the national strategy of the “Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area”, SZPT has continuously integrated high-quality industry and vocational education resources in the Greater Bay Area, and set up a number of industry-education-research-application platforms such as the Greater Bay Area Institute of Artificial Intelligence Application Technology, the Carbon Neutral Digital Energy Collaborative Education Innovation Center, and the Greater Bay Area Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base. In the future, SZPT will continue to invest 236 million Yuan to establish a number of Greater Bay Area brands and Shenzhen-Hong Kong applied technology research and development institutions, and build the park into a vocational education cooperation institution with excellent innovation and global influence.

Teachers and students of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperative education programs were having classes in the park

It is reported that SZPT has maintained frequent exchanges with VTC over the years, and the joint training of talents has yielded fruitful results. As early as 2008, the two sides signed a cooperation agreement to launch the “Higher Diploma Course in Electrical Service Engineering”. So far, 240 students from Hong Kong have been enrolled for 13 sessions.

After the opening of the park, the two sides will continue to jointly run the “Higher Diploma Course in Electrical Service Engineering” program. They will also deepen cooperation in game and animation, fashion design, building services engineering, and hotel & catering management, and work together to set curriculum standards, introduce teachers, conduct joint management and issue diplomas from both sides, with a view to cultivating more international, high-quality and technical talents for the Greater Bay Area. By 2025, it is planned to enroll more than 500 Hong Kong students in the park and conduct skills training for over 8,700 persons in the Greater Bay Area.

In addition, Shenzhen and Hong Kong will jointly carry out technological research and development cooperation to serve the transformation of enterprises in the Greater Bay Area. At present, SZPT has set up four scientific research platforms in the vocational education park, i.e. the Greater Bay Area Institute of Artificial Intelligence Applied Technology, the Carbon Neutral Digital Energy Collaborative Education Innovation Center, the Institute of Ultrasonic Technology, and the Academician Zhao Chunsheng Workstation, to meet the industrial development needs of Hong Kong and Macao, and jointly carry out applied technology research and development with Hong Kong to accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the delivery of enterprise products. In the next 5 years, the park will build 8 platforms at or above the provincial level, realize the localization of key technical difficulties, and serve more than 800 enterprises in the Greater Bay Area.

Co-build the Greater Bay Area Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Base and attract young people from Hong Kong and Macao to start their own businesses in Shenzhen

Leaders and guests to visit the entrepreneurial works of our students in the Bay Area Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base

“The company that I have founded with my partners is very lucky to be among the first batch of incubation projects in the park”, said Liu Kanghua, one of the founders of Shenzhen Yizhu Cultural Creative Co., Ltd., who is currently being incubated at the Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base in the park, a Hong Kong student majoring in environmental art design at the School of Art and Design of SZPT. Talking about the Greater Bay Area youth innovation and entrepreneurship base, he expressed that it is more like a “safe” for young people in the Greater Bay Area. For young entrepreneurs with mental resources but “unarmed”, various realistic policies such as rent free, fee reduction and technical guidance make everyone more confident to go ahead.

At present, there are a total of 46 projects being incubated in the park base, such as Yizhu Culture. Based on the actual situation of the projects, the base provides various incubation services such as policy consultation, mentor services, market development, technical support, training, etc. In the next step, SZPT will work with VTC to continuously improve the operation and management system of the industrial park, integrate various advantageous resources such as teaching, scientific research, practical training and talents, and create an all-factor one-stop service platform for young people’s innovation and entrepreneurship in the Greater Bay Area. Meanwhile, based on the innovation and entrepreneurship education platform of Shenzhen colleges and universities, the base will attract excellent entrepreneurial teams from Shenzhen and Hong Kong colleges and universities to settle in the base to complete the incubation acceleration.

Leaders and guests were cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony of Vocational Education Services (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

After the opening ceremony, Vocational Education Services (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., the first Mainland company set up by VTC in the park, was also inaugurated. It is reported that Vocational Education Service (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Hong Kong Vocational Training Council. Its entry into the park has established a bridge of cooperation between SZPT and VTC, and laid a foundation for subsequent exchanges, project docking and activity promotion between the two sides.

(Text by Li Nan, Department of Publicity; Image by Zhang Lei, Department of Publicity, Xie Jiakang, Convergence Media Center)