A pilot project using a German vocational educational model to train skilled factory workers is offering a new opportunity for students in the traditional industrial city of Liuzhou.

The first students of the cooperative program between Liuzhou Vocational and Technical College and Liuzhou ZF Machinery Co Ltd were enrolled at the college in September and will graduate in 2017.

Liuzhou ZF is introducing German vocational educational resources and training the college's students in its workshops as interns, according to an agreement signed in April.

The college will combine its Chinese vocational education system with the German industrial standards and a vocational qualification certificate system.

Liuzhou ZF is a joint venture created in 1995 in Liuzhou, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, between Guangxi Liugong Machinery Co Ltd and ZF Friedrichshafen AG of Germany, which manufactures drivelines and parts for construction machinery. Liuzhou ZF is the company's first branch in China.

ZF Group attaches great importance to the Chinese market and now has more than 20 factories in the country, said Bernd Kohl, vice-president of ZF's industrial technology department. Annual sales revenue in China is about 20 billion yuan ($3.14 billion).

Kohl said he hopes the cooperation with the college will benefit more young people in China, and that more students will have opportunities to study in Germany.

After the signing ceremony for the joint venture at the college, Kohl, Hermann Sicklinger, chairman of the trade union of ZF's industrial technology department, and Christian Fuchs, the department's chief financial officer, visited workshops at the college's electromechanical engineering department and advanced manufacturing intern factory.

Liuzhou has been an industrial center in South China since the 1950s, concentrating on automobiles, machinery and metallurgy. Last year, the value of the city's industrial production was more than 400 billion yuan, about 25 percent of the region's total.

Pan Xuyang, vice-director of the Liuzhou education bureau, said the cooperation marks a new chapter in the development of Liuzhou's vocational education.

"Internationalization is the future of Liuzhou's vocational education," Pan said.

The employment rate of the college's graduates has remained above 95 percent for many years. Shi Lingming, president of the college, said the new venture will create even stronger graduates.

"The quality vocational education resources introduced by the ZF company from Germany, and the internships at the company will improve the education quality of the college," Shi said. "That our graduates can meet the requirements of global enterprises is the foundation for the cooperation between school and enterprise."

Contact the writers through liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/29/2015 page11)