On December 10 of the local time, the grand opening ceremony of YRCTI South Africa Dayu School was held at Northlink College, South Africa, indicating the second YRCTI Dayu School after Zambia Dayu School and new achievements for the “1+N” Chinese-foreign distributed school-running model.

Forum scene

Zhu Yuhua, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of YRCTI, and Leon Beech, Dean of South Africa Northlink College co-unveiled the nameplate of “South Africa Dayu School”.

Zhu Yuhua communicated with the student representatives of South Africa Dayu School intimately

During the ceremony, Zhu Yuhua, Deputy Secretary of Party Committee and President of YRCTI, and Leon Beech, Dean of South Africa Northlink College co-unveiled the nameplate of “South Africa Dayu School”. Heads of Office of Technical Affairs, Financial Section, Development Planning Office and other departments attended the opening ceremony together with heads of campuses and departments of South Africa Northlink College, part of teachers and the South African students. Doctor Lu Zhilei, the Chief of Chinese Culture and International Exchange Center in South Africa presided over the ceremony.    

Zhu Yuhua introduced the long history and powerful strength of YRCTI and expressed that as an Executive Vice-chairman organization of the Chinese Council for China & South Africa Technical and Vocational Education Cooperation Alliance, Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute actively responded to the national “Belt and Road” Initiative, served enterprises “going global” and deepening the China and South Africa vocational cooperation and industry-education integration. The founding of South Africa Dayu School under the cooperation between YRCTI and South Africa Northlink College was the great achievements obtained in the cooperation process of both colleges, providing professional and skilled talents needed urgently for South Africa in mechatronics, electrical automation, construction engineering, etc., as well as the YRCTI solutions from and intelligence for international technical talent cultivation. She expected that both parties could enhance the liaison and communication and conduct deeper cooperation in student cultivation, technical service, skill competition, and other fields.  

Leon Beech expressed a warm welcome to Zhu Yuhua and her colleagues and congratulations on YRCTI being selected as the high-level higher vocational college construction unit (grade A) and briefed the information of the college. He described that the South Africa Nothlink College was located in the administrative capital of South Africa, Cape Town with 7 campuses, 12,000 enrolled students, and over 70 specialties, ranking top among higher vocational colleges in South Africa for its comprehensive strength and the graduate employment rate. Then, he recalled the cooperation between the two colleges for the past 2 years. At present, the college had enrolled 90 South African students of Dayu School who completed the study in South Africa for 2 years and passed the assessment, went to YRCTI for the third year’s learning and acquired the graduate certificates co-issued by YRCTI and the South Africa Northlink College after they finished all of their learning tasks.

During the visit, Zhu Yuhua communicated with Alana James, President of the Association of Vocational Colleges in South Africa and visited the training rooms, classrooms, students’ skill testing center and student services center together with her colleagues accompanied by the Chief Director of South Africa Northlink College. Next, she communicated with the student representatives majoring in Mechatronics from South Africa Dayu School intimately and exchanged their learning and training conditions in detail.    

Over the past few years, YRCTI acted under the national “Belt and Road” Initiative and the “going global” development strategy for Chinese-invested enterprises, continuously deepened the international exchange and cooperation and witnessed the improvement of international education level. In 2018, a Dayu School was founded in Zambia to cultivate the local technical and skilled talents urgently needed, opening a new era for the overseas education of YRCTI. Till now, YRCTI has built the cooperation relationship with 55 universities and educational institutions from 28 countries and regions and enrolled 480 overseas students from 31 countries and regions. The Institute was also listed in “Top 50 Chinese Higher Vocational Colleges with International Influence” for 2 years consecutively.