After another batch of vocational training equipment from Jinhua Polytechnic shipped to the African continent, the Luban Workshop of Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC) Musanze in the Northern Province of Rwanda established five additional training rooms for communication and network technology, automation, e-commerce, and more. Jinhua Polytechnic has contributed to the development of African higher vocational education and sent equipment to Africa for nearly 10 years.

In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping published a signed article titled “China and Rwanda: A Friendship Higher than Mountains” in mainstream Rwandan newspaper The New Times ahead of his state visit to the African country. The article mentions that “Musanze Integrated Polytechnic Regional College has grown into the biggest professional training center in the Northern Province.” This is the school that Jinhua Polytechnic cooperates with and helps, improving higher vocational education in Africa.

As early as 2012, Jinhua Polytechnic began to contact the government of Rwanda. The two parties signed a memorandum of cooperation on vocational education in September 2013. It was agreed that every year, Rwanda would send international students to Jinhua Polytechnic, while Jinhua Polytechnic would send teachers to Rwanda to promote the development of local vocational education.

Since 2014, funded by the Jinhua government, Jinhua Polytechnic has received a total of 99 students from Rwanda for four sessions. After one year of Chinese language learning, the students can independently choose the majors they are interested in and take a three-year course of study in professional skills. Communication network and equipment, automobile detection and maintenance technology, and tourism management are the preferred majors of Rwandan students. By now, more than 60 graduates have returned to their hometowns and become local talents.

While training international students in Jinhua, Jinhua Polytechnic also advanced the construction of its overseas branch in Rwanda. After years of investigation into Rwanda’s needs for economic and social development and talents, Musanze International College of Jinhua Polytechnic was founded with a skill development center and a Chinese language learning center in July 2017.

In November 2019, the first China-Rwanda Vocational Education Seminar kicked off in Jinhua. The attending parties reached a consensus on cooperation, including establishing standards and co-constructing majors. Jinhua Polytechnic took the lead in developing teaching standards for the majors of e-commerce and electrical automation technology.

Jinhua Polytechnic has continuously exported high-quality vocational education resources. For example, it has built an online teaching platform in Rwanda to train Rwandan teachers. It also established the Luban Workshop to meet students’ needs of training in agricultural machinery maintenance, information technology, e-commerce livestreaming, electrical automation technology, and other majors.

Moreover, Jinhua Polytechnic has promoted vocational education by building a vocational education alliance. At present, the college is contacting and communicating with over 40 think tanks, colleges and universities, and companies.

The vocational education cooperation between Jinhua Polytechnic and Rwanda promotes cooperation and friendly exchanges between the Jinhua and Rwandan governments. In 2020, Jinhua and Musanze became sister cities. (By Sun Yuanyuan, translated by Jin Haiqiong, edited by Kendra Fiddler)