On October 20th, the NPUST Talent Recruitment Project Office hosted the “Technical and Vocational college and High School Exchange Forum” at the Creative Idea Center on the second floor of the university library. The event was co-organized by NPUST and the National Taitung Junior College, with directional support coming from the General Office for Technical College Recruitment and Specialization—and it was the first large-scale forum to be held for technical schools of Taiwan’s southern and eastern regions. The forum was opened by NPUST Vice-President Shang-Ming Ma, NTUST Dean of Academic Affairs Shanq-Jang Ruan, NPUST Dean of Academic Affairs Wei-Hua Lu, and Deputy-Dean of Academic Affairs Hsuan-Kai Lin.
For the discussions, Principal Hsin-man Li of Pingrong High School, Internship Office Director Chen-Jen Su of the Affiliated Senior High School of National University of Tainan, and NPUST General Affairs Division Director Yung-Hsin Cheng were invited to share on the implementation of the “2019 Standardized Syllabus” and on providing guidance on and conducting reviews of learning progress records. A total of 53 administrative representatives from 35 schools participated in the event.
In his remarks, NPUST Vice-President Ma said that “following the Ministry of Education’s formal implementation of the 12-Year National Curriculum, parents of students have by-and-large been sending their children to regular high schools, and the number of students enrolling in technical and vocational high-schools has dropped dramatically. This has also indirectly resulted in Unified Enrollment Test applications hitting new lows every year. Technical colleges not only face difficulties recruiting students due to low birthrates, but the number of technical high school students who are choosing general universities is also increasing. We hope that through this exchange and discussion we can find ways to highlight the workplace advantages that graduates of technical and vocational colleges have—while on the one hand, enhancing the confidence of students’ and parents’ in technical and vocational education and on the other, adding new blood to Taiwan’s technical talent pool”.
NTUST Dean of Academic Affairs Shanq-Jang Ruan said “we hope that through the Technical and Vocational Education Forum we can continuously instill and explain correct educational concepts, so that we can really make effective use of the recruitment system. And it must be made use of in accordance with adaptive-training education policies rather than following concepts that focus on test scores. We want students to get to the right places to develop their strengths and allow teachers to help students make the right choices—these are special features of technical and vocational education. The purpose of this event is for everyone to get to know each other better and to integrate information from the 2019 Standardized Syllabus so that we can help students choose the right departments of study”.
At the center of the activity were the group discussions, with vocational high schools divided into 6 groups, including agriculture, food, design, catering, business management, and machinery. These categories, which correspond to 17 departments at NPUST, were used to focus on experiences from reviewing learning progress records and to discuss how to enable senior high school students to develop their potentials and strengths. Based on experiences from the first year of implementing the new curriculum, technical colleges can do a better job of selecting the right talent and senior high school students will have easier times finding programs that are consistent with their interests.
Hopes are that through the exchange and discussions, participants will be able to optimize strategies for future counseling, education, and talent selection while also making the progress and interests of students during their three years in high school more visible to teachers. By linking technical colleges and high schools together, the technical and vocational education system can be made more complete, the core values of the 2019 Standardized Syllabus can be put to practice, and more workplace talents can be cultivated.
