Grand Opening of the 8th ATC – Building the Future Jointly with African Youths
On July 24, the 8th Africa Tech Challenge (ATC) sponsored by AVIC INTL opened at The Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya. Esther Thaara Muoria, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Zong Wa, Deputy Secretary-General of China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE), Paul Mwanza Shiundu, Chancellor of The Technical University of Kenya, and officers in technical education or vocational training department of Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, as well as the General Representatives of AVIC INTL in Kenya attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. The representatives of participating universities, teams, and partners of this ATC attended the opening ceremony both on site and online.
Esther Thaara Muoria said in the speech that in this era of progress and innovation driven by technology, ATC is a great opportunity to showcase the skills, creativity, and problem-solving ability of the youth in the science and technology intersection field and can help Kenya leverage technologies to drive changes, solve problems of the present world, and create a brighter future for all of us. Zong Wa pointed out that as the Sino-African relationship deepens, new highlights, new forms, and new breakthroughs will emerge in cooperation in technical and vocational education between both sides. Jointly cultivating high-quality technical and skilled talents will become a common goal of Sino-African vocational education cooperation.
The completion this time was jointly held by AVIC INTL, Kenyan Ministry of Education, and China Education Association for International Exchange. It is an important event focusing on skill enhancement of African youth under the Future Africa Sino-African Vocational Education Cooperation Program. A total of 83 teams and 332 students from 9 countries such as Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe were invited to the competition. The CNC lathe competition and mechanical engineering drawing and CAD application design competition were held. The CNC lathe competition was conducted on site in Kenya while the mechanical engineering drawing and CAD application design competition was held online in the participating countries. In the training phase, the competitors participated in a five-week professional training and gained the corresponding certificate. The CNC lathe techniques were lectured on site by the teachers of Inner Mongolian Electromechanical Vocational Technical Institute. The mechanical engineering drawing and CAD application design was lectured online by teachers of Chengdu Aviation Vocational and Technical College and Xi'an Aviation Vocational and Technical College. The Chinese-made zwCAD software was used for practical training. After the competition was completed, the wining team won the awards and the winning individual would go to China for study and be recommended for a chance of internship or employment.
Since 2014, ATC has already been held for 7 times. As the first on-site competition in the post-COVID era, this competition was expanded in scale and feature activities such as expert exchange and discussion, factory visit, project visit, Chinese culture experience, and multi-lateral vocational education forum were conducted in order to improve the international influence of ATC and to promote deep exchange between China and African countries. Furthermore, digital technical means was also adopted for this competition. Through AVIC INTL vocational education online platform, rich knowledge in vocation education field was provided for the African youths for free, in order to help African countries cultivate quality workers and technical talents and to assist in economic development of the African society based on vocational education.
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative and also marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping's principles of China's Africa policy – sincerity, real results, amity, and good faith. Over the past decade, AVIC INTL has adhered to the concept of teaching people to fish is better than giving them fish, and conducted high-quality engineering projects as the solid support and technical training and talents cultivation as the soft support, and it takes ATC to help African youths to improve their employment skills, bring real and solid development for local areas in Africa, and create new forms of Chinese enterprises' performing corporate social responsibility in foreign countries.