Dr. Xin Lu, China’s Vice Minister of Education for the country, will visit Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWIT) tomorrow morning, Nov. 15, 2011, 8 AM with a Chinese delegation to research workforce and technical training programs for use in China.
“This is an extreme honor for the school, and our region on a whole,” said Lin Zhou, associate dean of extended learning at LWIT who helped arrange the visit. “LWIT is the only school Dr. Lu is visiting on this trip to the United States and it is the policy her department creates that dictates higher education structure throughout China. What she learns here could have significant bearing on how the Chinese provide workforce and job skills training.” Read More >>
Dr. Lu and her delegation of eight dignitaries, including both the deputy director and division head of the Department of Technical and Adult Education within the Chinese Ministry of Education are researching opportunities to provide job skills to today’s Chinese college graduates, who while educated still require technical skills to enter the workforce.
The Chinese delegation will spend the morning at LWIT speaking with the school’s administration and touring the nursing, dental hygiene, funeral service education, welding and machining departments. The group will then go on to a meeting with Microsoft followed by Boeing.
Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWIT) is a broad-based polytechnic college offering instruction in 36 programs toward a spectrum of more than 100 bachelor and associate level degrees and certificates designed to give students the latest cutting edge skills relevant to today’s workplace. Founded in 1949, LWIT offers hands-on, real-world training in manufacturing, transportation, energy, business, allied health, computer and information systems, food and hospitality, and health and fitness. For information and news about LWIT programs, please visit http://www.lwtech.edu/
LWIT is excited to host the Chinese Vice Minister of Education (the equivalent to the US Department of Education Undersecretary) tomorrow at 8 a.m. This is an exceptional event as the Vice Minister has chosen LWIT as the ONLY school she will visit on her research tour to gather information on workforce and technical training.
ReplyDeleteIn the face of higher education budget cut decisions due out of Olympia before the end of the month, this is an ideal opportunity to highlight the value of our higher education institutions not only to residents, but also our economic partners abroad. Our schools rely on a balance of international students.
Three percent of LWIT’s students are international students, who each pay three times the resident tuition. Five international students provide the funding to add an additional class to our programs that can serve 25 students, and for every $1 in tuition an international student pays, they contribute $7 to the local economy in room, board, travel, expenses, entertainment, etc. What’s more, these international partnerships allow us to send faculty abroad (thus saving a job) when budget cuts dictate elimination of faculty positions at the school.
--Jen Boyer, Media specialist, LWIT