China’s Xi Jinping wants more Luban Workshops worldwide – but what are they?
The vocational education programme, a less well-known project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, has been brought up in several speeches
At this year’s meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), President Xi Jinping said China will launch 10 additional Luban Workshops in the organisation’s member countries over the next five years, providing training slots for 10,000 individuals.
Named after the ancient architect and inventor Lu Ban, the project is somewhat low profile compared to others in Beijing’s infrastructure-heavy Belt and Road Initiative.
Here, we provide more clarity on what the workshop is, what it does and the extent of its global reach.
What is the Luban Workshop?
The workshop, a vocational education programme launched by China in 2016, was created to shore up the skills and know-how of local labour forces through partnerships with schools in host countries.
Courses offered by the Luban workshop are sometimes integrated into the curriculum of local colleges, with some providing exchange opportunities for students to travel to Tianjin for study. It also provides vocational training for local businesses.