China installing more vocational training centres globally via Luban Workshops in strategic talent push
- Some graduates will help fill the need for skilful workers at projects linked to China’s Belt and Road Initiative
- At least 20 of the China-backed vocational training centres, known as Luban Workshops, have quietly opened in 19 countries since 2016
At a vocational school in Indonesia’s East Java, classes are being taught on automotive engineering and maintenance for new energy vehicles. Over 13,000km (8,000 miles) away in the Portuguese seaside city of Setubal, students are earning degrees in industrial robotics and automation technology. And soon, a vocational school in central Asia’s Tajikistan will start offering degrees in urban thermal-energy planning.
They all have one thing in common: China.
Despite their subject variety and the vast distances between them, all of these schools exist under the same educational umbrella stemming from the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin.
Little known in the West, and barely reported outside Chinese media, at least 20 China-backed vocational training centres known as Luban Workshops have quietly opened in 19 countries since 2016.
Formed in partnerships between a host country’s local institutions and vocational schools in Tianjin – under the guidance of China’s Ministry of Education – the workshops promise to shore up the abilities and know-how of local workforces.
“Luban Workshops are about providing practical skills to local labour to increase employability in developing countries – something long neglected even by many local governments and politicians,” said Song Seng Wun, a Singapore-based economist at CIMB Private Banking.