On the work of Hanns Seidel Foundation in the field of promoting vocational education training in China with focus on structurally weak regions, e.g. Xizang
 

Alexander Birle 
 

German
 

Chief Representant of German Hanns Seidel Foundation

 

By eradicating absolute poverty, China has made a major contribution to achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Xizang's development has also been able to show great success in recent years within the framework of poverty reduction measures too. In this regard, German Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) was able to contribute to the development of the region through sustainable vocational education and training for teachers and principals to foster economic participation and promote the reduction of disparities. Together with its main partner, the Ministry of Education, the HSF has been actively supporting development policy in China since 1982. The aim of this collaboration is to act as a partner to China in its far-reaching transformation processes in social and educational areas through consultancy, target-oriented pilot projects as well as training for decision-makers and facilitators. In the late 1990s the "Go-West" strategy was declared an explicit project objective of the HSF at the emphatic request of the Ministry of Education, which provided considerable additional financial resources for the education sector in the western regions. The program for Xizang was part of this concept to contribute to regional development through qualitative education. Between 1999 and 2013, HSF conducted a total of 31 training events for 385 vocational school teachers and school principals from Xizang on site or in HSF’s training centers and two three-month trainings in Germany. The trainings in China were led by German as well as Chinese experts. The measures comprised a duration of one to seven weeks and covered the areas of electrical engineering, agricultural machinery, welding, automotive engineering, solar photovoltaics, sheet metal processing, English for tourism and gastronomy. The training measures included the imparting of specialist knowledge in the individual areas as well as methodology and didactics. With these measures HSF could contribute to the increase of practical and methodical skills of vocational school teachers and directors.