Cote d'Ivoire educators taught vocational skills

Nearly 100 teachers from Cote d'Ivoire recently graduated from a vocational education course in China and returned to their home country to teach in-demand skills for domestic industries.

During the four months of training, the group of 91 experienced teachers and education inspectors studied in seven fields in vocational schools across China.

Recommended by Cote d'Ivoire's Ministry of Technical Education, Vocational Training and Apprenticeship, these teachers received vocational training in subjects including welding, food processing, printing technology and civil engineering.

Co-hosted by AVIC-INTL Project Engineering and seven leading vocational education institutes in China, the course aims to alleviate the vocational skills shortage and high unemployment rate of young people in Cote d'Ivoire.

The company has built seven vocational schools in major cities in Cote d'Ivoire to help nurture professional talent in the country, and the training course is the latest effort in cultivating domestic teaching resources.

Students from Cote d'Ivoire have grasped professional skills during the course, which also involved touring top Chinese manufacturers, the company said.

Cherif Diahou, an education inspector from the ministry, said the 12 trainees at the Inner Mongolia Technical College of Mechanics and Electrics have made great progress in boiler manufacturing and welding techniques.

"They have not only learned knowledge in classes but also practiced excellent professional skills, unveiling the world of welding and boiler production," Diahou said during the graduation ceremony at the Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Forestry.

Kanga N'Guessan Michel, one of the four trainees at Shanghai Publishing and Printing College, said the printing course is very meaningful and will be helpful in their future work.

"The instructors from the college were patient and effective when teaching us knowledge and skills. We also got a chance to learn about the city and some aspects of Chinese culture," Michel said.

"The combination of theory and practice has greatly helped us understand the civil engineering course," said Amani Koffi Augustin, an inspector of the training course at Chengdu Aeronautic Polytechnic in Sichuan province.

The training course is part of a vocational education and training program initiated during the eighth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2021.

The Future of Africa-China-Africa TVET Cooperation Program, jointly launched by the China Education Association for International Exchange and the Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa, aims to build a platform to share the experience and achievements of Chinese vocational education, according to CEAIE.

So far, the program has enrolled 392 African students in 13 countries, and dispatched 27 Chinese teachers to provide vocational education for more than 2,000 African technicians and teachers, it added.