News and Opportunities
Visit by Taizhou school strengthens foundation for long-term partnerships
18 Sep 2012
A cultural visit to Australia by a school from Taizhou city, China, during August 2012 has been warmly received by Kambrya College in Victoria. The visit follows the Australian School Mission to Taizhou in May, organised by Austrade to cultivate local-level linkages between Australian and Chinese schools.
Cooperative activities to strengthen school-to-school relationships are important building blocks for long-term partnerships with education institutions in China.
In November 2012, a Taizhou school delegation plans to visit Australia and will be led by the Taizhou Municipal Education Bureau. The delegation will meet with the ACT Government and some of the Australian schools that participated in the May visit to China to discuss the next practical steps for furthering cooperative partnerships.
The Australian School Mission 2012 was an Austrade-initiated mission comprising several Victorian and South Australian schools along with representatives from NSW and ACT Governments. Its focus was engaging local government and schools in Taizhou, a prefecture-level city in east China Zhejiang Province.
The visiting program included an Austrade briefing about school education in China, calls on the Taizhou Municipal Education Bureau and one-on-one meetings with local schools. Also organised was the first ‘Australia-Taizhou English Speaking Competition’, part of public diplomacy activities by the Australian Consulate-General, Shanghai, to extend engagement with the Taizhou public.
The mission marked a prelude to long-term relationships between the selected schools from both countries. Highlights of the mission included:
- Memorandums of understanding for further collaboration signed between the visiting Australian schools and local schools during the visit.
- Connections established between the NSW and ACT Governments and the Taizhou Municipal Education Bureau, paving the way for government-level cooperation.
The mission was widely covered by key print and online media in the Taizhou city.
For more information, contact Ms Lily Wu, Education Manager, Austrade Shanghai.
Analysis
Promoting Australian schools in China is an Austrade priority.
The Australian School Mission 2012 laid a solid foundation for further cooperative dialogue through its recognition of the importance of developing complementary strategies to form long-term relations in the Chinese market. In China, person-to-person communication plays a very important role in building business connections and growing trust among people.
While the principal goal of many Australian schools is student recruitment, it is crucial to raise your school’s profile by establishing mutually-beneficial and trusting relationships with China partners before discussing business.
In line with Austrade’s school sector market initiative, similar opportunities for collaboration between Australian and Chinese schools will be identified and promoted through the Market Information Package. Australian schools are strongly encouraged to consider such opportunities as part of their internationalisation and marketing strategies to outreach to the China market.