On the afternoon of October 29, 2024, Griffin Alan Campbell, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Food and Beverage Training Authority, Higher Education and Training Department, Republic of South Africa, and Program General Manager of South African-Chinese Culture and International Education Exchange Center, made a special visit to Shanghai Donghai College. President He Ying met with them and hosted a discussion.
He Ying firstly expressed a warm welcome to honored guests from Food and Beverage Training Authority, Higher Education and Training Department, Republic of South Africa. She provided a comprehensive overview of Shanghai Donghai College, including its history, educational profile and achievements in serving as a teacher training base for private universities, contributing to the construction of regional scientific and technological innovation centers, and advancing the internationalization of the college. Additionally, she shared the latest progress of South African Silk Road Silk Program and highlighted some achievements of Shanghai Donghai College in the ongoing World Vocational College Skills Competition 2024. She hoped that Shanghai Donghai College would have more cooperation with Higher Education and Training Department, Republic of South Africa, and South African-Chinese Culture and International Education Exchange Center, to continuously explore the new models of Sino-African vocational education cooperation.
Alan Campbell provided a detailed introduction to the Food and Beverage Training Authority in South Africa. The Authority is primarily responsible for skill development and talent cultivation in the food and beverage manufacturing industry, serving about 4,300 companies. As the industry in South Africa progressively embraces digital transformation, there is an urgent need to find reliable partners, establish a Security Operations Center (SOC), and then clarify the talent development requirements. Alan Campbell spoke highly of the educational facilities and practical training infrastructure of Shanghai Donghai College and was full of confidence in the future cooperation. He anticipated that through the cooperation with the teacher training base of Shanghai Donghai College, both parties could jointly enhance vocational skills and inject new momentum into the training of talents, so as to better meet the evolving needs of the Security Operations Center.
During the visit, Lu Jiacheng outlined the current situation of higher education and vocational education in South Africa, as well as the significant investment made by the Higher Education and Training Department, Republic of South Africa in relevant projects. The South Africa-China Exchange Center has upheld the philosophy of synergistic development between industry and education in recent years, achieving remarkable results in various China-South Africa exchanges such as industry-education alliances, cross-border e-commerce, cultural and artistic exchanges. These efforts have facilitated the study and research of thousands of South African students in China. In the future, there is a desire to expand cooperation with Shanghai Donghai College across a broader range of fields.
After the meeting concluded, Allen Campbell and his team visited Donghai College’s School of Information Engineering, School of Communication, School of Economics and Management, School of Aviation, School of Nursing, and the library, as well as other teaching and training facilities and industry-academia collaboration spaces. Shanghai Donghai College’s strength and talent cultivation mode were highly praised, and more in-depth cooperation would be conducted.
