IPRC Musanze, one of the eight colleges of Rwanda Polytechnic, is the latest educational institution to welcome the Luban workshop – a Chinese vocational training programme set up to deepen cooperation between China and other countries in supporting global development.
The newly inaugurated Rwanda Luban workshop includes a modern laboratory equipped with robots and other new technologies, and will support the country’s efforts dedicated to enhancing capacity-building in various sectors as it pursues development goals. By developing and strengthening vocational skills and obtaining other core skills, the Rwandan youth are trying to adapt and thrive in a fast-changing world. China, through the Luban workshop – a partnership between Rwanda Polytechnic and Jinhua Polytechnic, is supporting the African country to address unemployment and under-employment, foster productivity, drive inclusive growth and improve standards of living.
In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Sylvie Mucyo, Vice-Chancellor-Rwanda Polytechnic said: ‘‘The Luban workshop is established with cutting-edge technologies that today’s world needs. It is a tremendous achievement, as it will help Rwandan students to get the best education, the best training in a conducive environment”. She added that the Luban workshop will enhance exchange of expertise – enabling students and staff, including researchers from Rwanda, to collaborate with their Chinese counterparts on projects that will ultimately unlock new opportunities and provide lasting solutions to pressing socio-economic challenges. Sylvie Mucyo said: “It will support students to be creative and innovative in working on solutions that the community and industry need”.
Since the first Luban workshop outside China was set up in Thailand on March 8, 2016 by the Tianjin Bohai Vocational Technical College, sponsored by Tianjin Bohai Chemical Industry (Group) Company Limited, China through the project continues to share its vocational technology and culture with the world – deepening cooperation between Chinese educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises with their foreign counterparts.
Named after Lu Ban, a Chinese craftsman of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), who became famous for inventing tools, the Luban workshop follows this spirit of craftsmanship and has over the past seven years been at the forefront of innovating vocational education worldwide – supporting countries to cultivate highly-skilled talents.
So far, a total of 27 Luban workshops have been established in 25 countries; including Britain, Cambodia, Portugal, Pakistan, Indonesia and India. For participating countries, especially those located in resource-poor regions, the Luban workshop is increasingly indispensable for national efforts dedicated to eliminating barriers to human capital development, industrialisation and agricultural modernisation – contributing to enhancing local capacity-development in various industries.
In Thailand, where the first Luban workshop outside China was set up, the project is located at Ayutthaya Technical College and over the past seven years has provided vocational training to 13,000 students. Students at the workshop receive hands-on training in modern teaching and learning facilities, including a high-speed railway training centre founded in 2018 by the Tianjin Railway Technical and Vocational College. Benefitting from advanced Chinese vocational training education including new technologies, Thailand has through the Luban workshop trained highly-skilled professionals for key sectors.
According to Tanu Vongjinda, Secretary-General – Thai Vocational Education Commission: “Courses offered by the workshop have precisely met the demand for high-quality talent in Thailand’s industrial and transportation sectors”. Tanu also revealed: “The workshop can be regarded as the Commission’s pride, having created a model for other educational institutions to promote vocational education management worldwide”.
Faced with a deeply concerning socio-economic phenomenon whereby nearly 7 in 10 out-of-school or unemployed youth in Thailand lack the motivation to develop skills or seek work due to a perceived lack of opportunities, according to a new UNICEF-led study (2023), the Luban workshop has become an invaluable resource by contributing to national actions expected to tackle this daunting challenge.
Faced with similar challenges, Africa – considered the continent with the least-skilled workforce in the world, a condition that partly accounts for the region’s decades-long slow growth – is also benefitting from the Luban workshop. In March 2019, Africa’s first Luban workshop was set up in Djibouti: and over the past four years, China has established 12 workshops in 11 African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, South Africa, Ethiopia and Egypt – jointly collaborating with local education authorities to provide the continent’s bulging youth population with vocational training designed to foster agriculture modernisation, advance industrialisation and support human capital development.
In Djibouti, the Luban workshop offers 4 majors – rail engineering technology, railway operation and management, business and logistics, all certified by local education authorities – and has trained 69 local teachers and 148 students. The project has also achieved one of its goals: cultivating local talents for the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, a major project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
By jointly providing countries with well-structured, advanced vocational training programmes that are typically needs-driven, China through the Luban workshop fosters a sense of ownership and empowerment – enabling participating countries, especially those located in resource-poor regions, to take bold steps and chart a new path to development.
About the Author
Alexander Ayertey Odonkor is a global economist with keen interest in the social, environmental and economic landscape of both developing and developed countries, particularly in Asia, Africa and Europe.
