The Sino-German Advanced Vocational Education (SGAVE) programme is the first joint enterprise among the Chinese Ministry of Education (MoE), the Center of Competence (CoC) at Tongji University, five German car manufacturers, Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, Volkswagen, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The SGAVE programme was established in 2011 with the aim of implementing practice and action-oriented vocational training. It is an important achievement of Chinese vocational education reform.
The Center of Competence (CoC) at Tongji University was named by MoE and was established in 2012. It is responsible for the implementation, occupation expansion and promotion of the SGAVE programme in China. Its main task is to further develop SGAVE System and improve the quality of Chinese vocational education.
At present, the SGAVE programme is mainly focused on three aspects – the education of automotive mechatronics, car body repair and new energy vehicle. In the future, it will be extended to some new areas such as intelligent manufacturing, software testing, nursing. All the courses are designed on the basis of the German dual training model given the reality of China, showing a good integration of school theoretical instruction and company skill training.
Until 2020, there have been almost 4,000 SGAVE graduates throughout China and established cooperation with more than 750 dealerships of the above five car manufacturers.
Under the leadership and support of the Chinese MoE, the CoC at Tongji University together with a group of German experts is constantly pushing ahead with the localization and multi-occupation expansion of the SGAVE programme, and continues searching for more opportunities for the programme.