Under the support of the Government of Caloocan City, University of Caloocan City (UCC), and the Caloocan City Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce Inc. (CCFCCCI), Huaqiao University (HQU) and UCC of the Philippines will work together to cultivate Chinese talent in UCC’s education majors, so as to meet the needs for education personnel who can speak Chinese fluently in Caloocan and to promote the bilateral exchanges and cooperation in the field of education.

On August 6th, HQU and UCC held an online meeting to promote the joint training program. Among those attending the meeting were Attorney Vera, Acting President of UCC, Marilyn T. De Jesus, mayor representative of Caloocan, Ramona Aguilar Prado, Dean of the College of Education of UCC, Hong Jianxiong, Honorary President of CCFCCCI, and HQU’s leaders from Office of International Exchange and Cooperation, Preparatory Education College and the Representative Office in the Philippines.

At the meeting, the two parties conducted in-depth discussions and reached consensus on the joint talent training in terms of the cooperation mode, training plan, training objectives, expected effect and the schedule.

Both sides stated that they would strive to train education majors in UCC into excellent teachers with Chinese as a second foreign language, so as to help national primary and secondary schools in the Philippines to offer more bilingual courses in Chinese and English, and improve the quality of Chinese teaching in local schools. With Chinese as a bridge, they aimed at promoting the mutual learning and the integration of educational ideas between China and the Philippines. During the pandemic, the two universities will strengthen their cooperation against all odds, jointly plan this new cooperation project, and work hard in online teaching, testing and graduation.

According to the schedule, from September 2021, the Preparatory Education College of HQU will offer Chinese credit courses to education majors in the College of Education of UCC, including Chinese for Beginners, Chinese in Practice, and Chinese Teaching in Practice. Graduates are expected to be proficient in Chinese educational ideas, core Chinese knowledge and Chinese teaching skills, so as to be able to teach Chinese-English bilingual courses in primary and secondary schools in the Philippines. The first batch of students include 31 fourth-year and 37 first-year students.

Caloocan also plans to fully introduce the teaching resources of Chinese Crash Course of Huaqiao University to help local primary and secondary educational institutions to strengthen their Chinese teaching and improve local Chinese education. The successful launch of the project will further the in-depth cooperation in education between HQU and the Belt and Road countries. We are committed to extending our high-quality education resources to local governments, universities and the wider education system, so as to better serve the development of local education and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.

Screenshot of Online Discussion About Talent Training Between China and the Philippines