Central TAFE has been rewarded for its pioneering training program developed with China’s Tianjin Engineering Technical Institute (TJETI) by receiving a prestigious Teaching Outcome Award from China’s Ministry of Education.
Awarded ‘First Class’ position in the regional Teaching Outcome Category, TJETI and Central TAFE were competing with over a 100 universities and colleges in the region alone.
At TJETI, Central TAFE has developed a ground breaking model of education for a Diploma in Engineering (Oil and Gas) qualification.
The unique curriculum design brought in industry groups who have direct input into the training to ensure graduating students have the precise skills they are looking for.
When the course was launched in 2005 the Institute had five industry groups as partners. This rapidly escalated to nine industry groups and has now peaked at 15 with many more queuing up to be involved.
The sheer size of the Chinese education system means that the winning of such awards is a great achievement.
Tianjin is the sixth largest city in China with a population of over 11 million people. TJETI has over 8500 students with over 400 full time students currently taking the diploma.
The provincial and national awards are very prestigious and highly valued by institutions throughout China as it gives them higher status within the education system. It also enables them to promote themselves as institutions of excellence
Although based in the heart of China, the course is delivered and assessed in English.
For the first year the students have over 1000 hours of intensive English tuition, with a lean towards all the terminology used in the engineering world.
Central TAFE staff visit periodically to deliver specific units and skill sets. This includes training the local staff in Training and Assessment skills.
Remarkably, the qualification brings with it a 100% guarantee of a job. Without fail, the graduating students are all selected by the associated employers and receive good salaries for their sought after expertise.
The regional Department of Education is so pleased with the program and the employment outcomes that it has requested the annual intake of 100 students be elevated to 200.
The partnership was the only joint program to win an award and the two institutions are now in the pipeline for the national awards in 2010.