NPTC Group of Colleges has had a successful staff visit to China this month. Christopher Manley, Senior Lecturer for International Operations and Linda Kelly, Lecturer for CDT, BTM and FACL, visited Hainan College of Economics and Business. This was in partnership with CEBVEC, who are a Centre of Excellence for British Vocational Education in China. NPTC Group has worked closely with CEBVEC over the past few years to design and deliver teacher-training programmes in China.
This visit was for completion of the delivery of the face-to-face part of the programme, as the other aspects of the programme have been online. The focus of this teacher-training programme is to develop a new way of teaching in China. It’s innovative and high level of quality features have contributed to the sheer success of this programme. More teachers in China are eager to participate in this bespoke programme to learn invaluable skills to improve their overall teaching style.
Both Chris and Linda have had an excellent experience during their 2 weeks spent teaching in China.
Linda Kelly only had positive comments to say about the trip as she said: “Teaching in China has been an incredible experience, from the beautiful sub-tropical landscape to the warm and friendly people, it was just magical. It was great to be in the classroom delivering face-to-face after so many online sessions. The professors enjoyed the teaching sessions, they were engaged and participated in all activities. The highlight of the trip was watching their micro teaches and seeing all the points of good practice that we have taught them being put into action. I was blown away by the high standard of their lessons and their enthusiasm. If the opportunity arises, I would return to China in a heartbeat.”
Christopher Manley also spoke highly of the trip too by adding: “The teaching experience was an outstanding one, and to help with the delivery I specifically requested access to one of their teaching sessions so that I could review a teacher doing what they do best and look for places to improve. It was at this stage that I realised what I was up against and meant material needed to be re-written and so I spent time planning and preparing the next sessions to be delivered – a really exciting challenge. What I particularly enjoyed about China was the people, everyone was so friendly and caring and I particularly liked on the last two days there was a ‘bring your child to school’ day and ‘bring your pet to school’ day; on the latter I witnessed someone bringing their parrot onto campus in a back pack.
What struck me about our teaching experience in Hainan, is we were welcomed by all members of staff and students alike. There were occasions where we visited the student food street which could be found just outside and wanted to order some food, strangers who spoke more English than we spoke their language came over to help us order food which was a typical approach we had from everyone. They wanted to take photos of me since to see a Welsh man walking around their campus was truly a spectacle to marvel at.
I would definitely recommend the experience to anyone and everyone”.
NPTC Group are looking forward to continuing their work with China and are excited at the prospect of future visits and programmes.
