Coleg Gwent has strengthened educational links in China following a visit to the country, sharing knowledge and creating new opportunities for students.

Coleg Gwent’s City of Newport campus director Gary Handley recently returned from a trip to China which further strengthened partnership arrangements between Welsh colleges and similar institutions in the rapidly growing world economy.

A strong working relationship now exists between Coleg Gwent and a newly built sector leading technology school in Guiyang City in Guizhou, China.

This partnership will actively support the sharing of good vocational training practice between the two institutions and will lay the foundation for future student and staff exchanges. It will also help Coleg Gwent to further strengthen their existing links in China by better understanding Chinese cultural and educational practices.

The visit was financially supported by the British Council and is part of the UK-China Principal Shadowing programme 2014. The next stage of this programme will see Coleg Gwent welcoming the Principal of Guizhou Machinery Industry School in November 2014.

The college already has partnerships with a wide range of education and training partners in several other countries and is host to summer language schools and a wide range of other international exchange visits.

Coleg Gwent campus director Gary Handley said: “There is clearly a desire increase vocational education throughout China and this is being supported by very considerable capital investment as well as a very strong political steer at all levels of the Chinese government. At Coleg Gwent we have a fantastic selection of vocational courses and apprenticeship routes and to be able to share our knowledge, develop ideas of best practice and create opportunities for our students and staff is a fantastic opportunity for Coleg Gwent.

“We hope that Coleg Gwent students and staff will benefit enormously from the vocational education links we are building in China.”

City of Newport Campus is one of five Coleg Gwent Campuses. Coleg Gwent has 23,189 full and part time students.