Schneider Electric recently held its first annual conference of the principals of the “BipBop Vocational Education Program” in Beijing. At the conference, principals from more than 50 schools in the BipBop Vocational Education Program, respective leaders from the Chinese Ministry of Education, and education experts from France joined together with Schneider Electric to discuss and share the achievements made in training base construction, course development and teacher training, as well as the equipment donations that have taken place since the launch of the BipBop Vocational Education Program.

WANG Jie, Vice President of Schneider Electric China and Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainable Development, delivering the opening speech

As a global innovative public welfare project, BipBop aims to examine a new personnel-training model, which features vocational education, coordinated development and greater interaction between enterprises. It helps disadvantaged youths become professionals in industrial automation, high-end manufacturing, energy management and other industries. It also helps them to better realize their social value by facilitating their contribution to the overall construction of China’s modern vocational education system.

To date, BipBop has established cooperation with more than 50 schools and provided more than 2000 hours of compulsory training for over 200 teachers, benefiting more than 30,000 students as a result.

Orienting vocational education and exploring new models of talent training through the joint efforts of schools and enterprises

BipBop is committed to utilizing the core advantages of the company and its partners and to establishing a personnel training model that features greater interaction between enterprises, vocational education and coordinated development, with the end result of helping young people develop into professionals in the field of industrial automation, intelligent manufacturing and energy management, and to obtain reasonable opportunities in career development.

Through the program, Schneider Electric has cooperated with vocational schools and technical training schools offering specialties relating to mechanical and electrical technology, and electronics and automation, by providing them with advanced experimental or training equipment as well as corresponding courses and teaching resources, helping the schools raise their teaching standards. In addition, leading industry experts from Schneider Electric will also assist teacher training in these schools to increase their professional competence and enhance their understanding of the industry.

French education expert interacting with the principals from the BipBop Program

“We hope students can learn and use technologically advanced equipment via the BipBop Vocational Education Program. Being a sustainable high-quality project, BipBop is complete with a return visit (follow-up) system, which is designed to discover details on the schools’ use of sponsored equipment, help them solve problems encountered through use, and provide equipment maintenance. We hope that our ‘acquaintances’ can become our ‘friends’, while, with deeper understanding, we and schools can play a greater role in the future,” remarked Wang Jie, Vice President of Schneider Electric China and Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainable Development.

BipBop’s original goal was to include 100 schools within three years, starting from 2016. To date, the program has already been carried out in over 50 schools. At the same time, Schneider Electric has also established a strategic partnership with the China Education Development Foundation (CEDF) to promote the implementation of BipBop programs. It is also cooperating with the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) to carry out the ‘Win the Future’ initiative on developing secondary-level vocational education, supporting such projects as training principals of secondary-level vocational schools, dispatching international technical experts for teaching, building training bases and so forth.

Education Attaché from the French Embassy in China meeting with principals from the BipBop Program

“Rather than going all out purely for an increase in the number of schools, Schneider Electric attaches greater importance to long-term sustainability, and takes steps to avoid poor quality resulting from insufficient numbers of teachers and other personnel. Following our earlier attempts that were perhaps more time-consuming to implement, going forward, we are now able to make rapid progress. Any further development, however, remains subject to the results of the initial stage,” said Wang Jie.

Vocational education is not only in need of people with technical skills but, even more so, it is in need of a cutting-edge vision of technology

Currently, we face a shortage of highly skilled workers. At the same time, some underdeveloped regions are dealing with an acute shortage of teachers and teaching resources. In order, therefore, to improve domestic vocational education levels, and to help teenagers from disadvantaged families develop expertise, Schneider Electric has, since 2009, been cooperating with ‘BN Vocational School’, China’s first tuition-free, non-profit charitable vocational school. It has helped the school set up training classrooms for intelligent manufacturing, electricity and lighting; donated products, equipment and courses needed by the school laboratories; and provided training for teachers as well as practical and occupational guidance for students in the BipBop program, consequently raising vocational education to a new level.

In the era of the digital economy, as the industry transforms and advances, market demand for well-educated and skilled technicians is expected to continue to grow.

“A cutting-edge vision of technology will allow them seek self-development and to meet the needs of industrial advancements. BipBop, therefore, is part of Schneider Electric’s vision to foster technological innovation and reshape the industry structure by joint cultivation of talented technicians,” said Wang Jie. “As a Chinese proverb says,” she continued, “‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’ Schneider Electric hopes to meet more students’ immediate requirements, and then to teach them the skills required to fulfill their long-term needs, ultimately establishing a platform from which they can develop expertise, improve their competitiveness and seize more opportunities for study and work, and, consequently, realize their social value.”

Schneider Electric’s BipBop Vocational Education Program successfully holds the first annual conference of principals