Shanghai to transfer vocational education textbooks to Europe

More teaching materials on secondary vocational education in Shanghai will be transferred this year to developed countries including France and the Netherlands as well as nations involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The robotics application school at Shanghai Information Technology College, as a member of an alliance between Shanghai and French secondary vocational schools, has been working on the French version of teaching materials on robotics, including industrial robot operation, and basic programming and industrial robot introduction.

If the printed and electronic editions were completed and transferred this year, it will be "the first transferred set of secondary vocational teaching materials on robotics from China to overseas", the school's teacher Zhang Qi was quoted as saying in a report by Shanghai-based newspaper Wenhui Daily on Jan 31.

The English version of textbooks on network attack and defense technology compiled by teachers from the college's internet technology school will also be used at Dutch vocational education classrooms.

"The transfer of local secondary vocational textbooks indicates that Shanghai's secondary vocational education has reached the internationally advanced level," Zhao Ning, director of vocational education at Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, was quoted as saying in the report.

"Vocational education in China has entered a golden age of reform and development, as a key factor to cope with economic, social and demographic changes," added Zhao.

The exchanges between Shanghai and overseas secondary vocational schools have been taking place since the 1990s.

Teaching materials compiled by local schools, like Shanghai Commercial Accounting School, on business, technology, innovation and other subjects, have been used in vocational schools overseas.

Moreover, international cooperation also involved setting vocational course standards, curriculum research and development, and teacher training.