On July 15, Yu Zhipeng, Director of the Guangdong-Aachen Industry 4.0 Application Research Center at our university, and Guo Feng, a faculty member from the School of Humanities, arrived at Midea Group's Thailand factory to launch a three-month “Chinese Language + Vocational Skills” training program. This initiative deeply integrates Chinese language instruction with smart manufacturing skills training, supporting the global expansion of this Fortune Global 500 Chinese enterprise and advancing the international strategy of “vocational education going global.”
This training program, based at Midea Group's Thai facility—Toshiba Home Appliances Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd.—was conducted by Yu Zhipeng to provide Midea Group's Thai employees with vocational skills training in robot maintenance and operation. The program addressed the development needs of Thailand's manufacturing base and the pain points in employee skill enhancement. Combining theory with hands-on practice, it provided Midea employees with comprehensive instruction on mechanical component maintenance, system maintenance, programming, and mastering integrated skills involving PLC and touchscreen interactions. The curriculum integrated Midea's smart manufacturing practices, ensuring immediately applicable training content that earned high praise from Thai employees.
In its Chinese language instruction program, Midea Group launched the “Thai Fun, Learn Chinese” initiative to actively engage Thai employees in learning the Chinese language and culture. To make classes more engaging and practical, Guo Feng implemented a dual-track teaching model combining offline and online sessions, delivering integrated “vocational skills + language and culture” instruction at Midea's factory. Course design closely aligns with Thai employees' practical needs, incorporating workshop scenarios, safety signage, and other relevant content. Engaging teaching tools like pinyin songs further enhance learning. Thai participants demonstrate high enthusiasm, actively engaging in online class interactions, showcasing the vibrant vitality of cross-cultural exchange.
The collaboration between our university and Midea Group has not only cultivated localized talent proficient in both Chinese language and advanced technical skills for the Group, but has also extended China's "industry-education integration" vocational education model to Southeast Asia. This lays a solid foundation for building a regional "intelligent manufacturing talent community." The next step will involve continuing to leverage the "Lingnan Artisan Polytechnic" platform to extend this university-enterprise international cooperation model to countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam, thereby deepening the outcomes of the "overseas expansion of vocational education."
Conceived and promoted by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, the Lingnan Artisan Polytechnic serves as a crucial platform to establish an international vocational education brand with Guangdong characteristics. It is designed to facilitate vocational education cooperation between China and other countries. In November 2024, the Guangdong "Belt and Road" Vocational Education Alliance held the launch and awarding ceremony for the first batch of Lingnan Artisan Polytechnics. Twelve higher vocational colleges, including our university, became the inaugural cohort of construction units.
