At 3:30 pm on November 30th of 2018 (local time), a meeting on cooperation projects that can be carried out by Huazhong University of Science and Technology and International Training Center of the International Labour Organization ("ITC" for short) began. The meeting was attended by representatives of Association for Global Governance and Sustainable Development at Huazhong University of Science and Technology ("HUSTGGSD" for short) and held at the ITC in Turin, Italy. Mr. Liu Yanguo, Director of ITC, and Dr. Zu Liangrong, Senior Project Officer, attended the meeting.
Mr.Liu Yanguo welcomed ICARE team and told us the history of the ITC and its role in the United Nations. ITC is an advanced vocational training institute established jointly by International Labour Organization of United Nations and the Italian Government in Turin in 1964. Since then, ITC has become the only official training institute and advanced on-the-job training center of United Nations. It provides training, learning, and capacity development services to governments, employers, workers' organizations, and other national and international partners as a way to support decent work and sustainable development. ITC performs more than 450 programs and projects for approximately 11,000 learners from more than 180 countries.
Dr. Zu Liangrong expressed his appreciation for the visit and his expectation for sustainable cooperation between the two side son behalf of ITC. Later, Mr. AndreAs Klemmer, Director of Training Department of ITC, and Ms. Jeannette Shalabi, Director of Cooperation and Project Development Department, introduced various training programs carried out by ITC.
The courses closely related to the new energy programs of ICARE are what students generally care about and interested in. Through the introduction by Mr. Ralf Kruger, the sustainable development project manager, we learned that ITC's curriculum system is complete and supported by a team of highly qualified experts. The curriculum system covers five fields: procurement management, planning and project cycle management, green jobs, transnational corporations and global supply chains, and decent work & sustainable development. It provides students with the knowledge of academic community, international organizations, and the private sector, so that students can use the knowledge to tackle current and future challenges. Moreover, it is also important to sustainable development and the enhancement of market competitiveness.
Then the two sides exchanged views on cooperation and the possible approaches to achieve cooperation. Ms. Liang Yuanyuan, an instructor of HUSTGGSD and ICARE graduate advisor, introduced Huazhong University of Science and Technology, especially the postgraduate education programs of the ICARE. She said, "We are a comprehensive university that excels at science and engineering programs while attaching equal importance to the development of both liberal arts and sciences. Different disciplines have different advantages and these advantages can be used. Combining the disciplines with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, we can develop flexible, diverse models for cooperation, with an aim to improve postgraduates' international employment competitiveness." She also expressed her hope that through ITC's platform and by implementing the "bring in" and "go global" strategies, HUST can obtain internships and job opportunities from international organizations for its students. Last, student representatives asked questions about the projects and training courses that could be carried out.
At the end of the event, Dr. Zu Liangrong, one of the founders of the Global Youth Leadership Academy, introduced the "UN Elite Class for Global Youth Leadership" program, which will be launched by ITC next summer. Through this program, students will have opportunity to visit headquarters of international organizations in Turin (Italy), Geneva (Switzerland), and other places. They can listen to special lectures, participate in relevant courses and team work, and learn international rules, so as to get prepared for taking internships or jobs at international organizations. The program has attracted more than 100 college students from 8 higher education institutions to participate in the training. Through the program, a few excellent students have been sent to the United Nations to do internships. Students showed great interest in the program next year.
This visit has laid a good foundation for cooperation between the ITC and HUST. Through negotiation, the two sides reached an agreement on bringing in experts from international organizations and establishing an internship and training platform in the future.
