SGAVE Project Team Reports to Ministry of Education

On January 6, 2021, the SGAVE project team of the Center of Competence (CoC) at Tongji University reported to Deputy Director General Fang Jun and other leaders of the Ministry of Education (MoE) on the progress of the SGAVE project and the future plan for the further development.

Mr. Klaus-Juergen Brix, Deputy Director of CoC, elaborated the history and background of the SGAVE program and explained the features of the SGAVE program and the talent education system in terms of its internationalization, matching with the Chinese education strategy, the vertical connection from secondary vocational school over higher vocational school to applied science university, the horizontal transplantation of multiple occupations, the quality assurance system for certification as well as the standardization and digitalization.

Ms. Xu Zhiji, Director of CoC, reported the future plan regarding the promotion and radiation of the project in the new stage and the establishment of SGAVE school-enterprise alliance and pilot schools for smart manufacturing and new energy.

Deputy Director General Fang highly praised the SGAVE project, saying that the project had laid a good foundation for the deepening and expansion of Sino-German cooperation in vocational education.

Currently, the 14th Five-Year Plan has already started the modernization of Chinese vocational education, against which how to cultivate high-level vocational talents through Sino-foreign cooperation will be an important topic. Deputy Director Fang hoped to use the SGAVE project as a backbone to achieve some key objectives. The SGAVE project is expected to have a good effect on the modernization of Chinese vocational education and the manufacturing industry, on the cooperation between Germany and China, and on the sustainable development of German companies in the Chinese market.

Deputy Director Fang and the participants thoroughly discussed the future plan of the SGAVE project with the attendants, saying that the MoE will fully support the work of the SGAVE project from the policy aspect. He, however, raised higher requirements for the further development of the SGAVE project, expecting the CoC to further develop the “14th Five-Year Plan” of the SGAVE project while maintaining the existing high standard and quality, highlighting there should be a qualitative improvement in scale and influence, more schools can join the SGAVE system, and more high-quality international talents can be cultivated for China.