The first Britain's Institute of Motor Industry (IMI) training program in China started on March 1 at Chengdu Industrial Vocational Technology College. The program, given by IMI, is a professional training program for autoworkers to obtain qualification certifications.

IMI Training program opening ceremony in Chengdu on March 1, 2012. [Photo/Chinadaily.com.cn]

"The program marks the internationalization of Chengdu's vocational education," said Wan Bin, director of Chengdu's vocational and adult education bureau. "Chengdu took a solid step to achieve international education standard."

Wan introduced that Chengdu has 133 secondary colleges, including 10 model colleges of state level and 19 key secondary colleges of state level, with more than 280,000 students. There are 68 professional training bases and 11 vocational education groups.

"The employment rate of Chengdu secondary colleges has reached 98 percent, and the city's professional employment rate is 76 percent. These secondary colleges bring Chengdu huge numbers of professionals every year."

As a partner of the IMI training program, Chengdu Industrial Vocational Technology College attaches great importance to the Sino-foreign cooperation.

The college was founded through the integration of six high quality secondary schools in 2010. It is a leading school of the second industry, which mainly engages in putting vocational education forward and supporting regional key industries. It is the biggest secondary vocational school in China with 1,200 staff members, 20,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time students. The college has set up 40 majors and 26 training bases that are jointly constructed by the college and cooperative enterprises.

Chengdu Industrial Vocational Technology College taken on March 1, 2012. [Photo/Chinadaily.com.cn]

Unlike other educational programs, this training program applies a new 'colleges-enterprises cooperation' model, with multi-part participation.

"Actually, we have prepared to cooperate with IMI since 2002," said Liao Debin, president of Chengdu Industrial Vocational Technology College. "During the period, our teachers were sent to Britain for professional training. In 2009, seven of them got National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ)."

"The IMI training program will shock the traditional ideas of the Chengdu automobile repairing industry, and force automobile 4S shops to improve their service standards and workers' abilities," he added.

Now there are 16 students in the program. "After they successfully finish this training, they will be awarded both China's vocational qualification certificate and IMI international qualification certificate," Liao said.

Li Zhi, a 16-year-old student in IMI training program, felt proud that he could participate in the program.

"I'm interested in automobile repairing. In this training program I take many practice courses, which helps improve my practical abilities. And our teachers are all professionals that have passed the NVQ examine."

"We can learn a lot of things every day. And we were told it is possible to have further study in South Nottingham College in Britain," said Mao Chaohong, another student of the program, "but I prefer to find a good job after finishing the training."