Chinese and Canadian education experts will be able to work together to deliver highly specialized and practical training programs to Chinese primary and secondary teachers, thanks to a new partnership between York University’s Schulich School of Business and the Beijing Institute of Education (BIE).
The Schulich Executive Education Centre’s Asian Business Management Program (SEEC-ABMP), and the BIE, affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education, have jointly launched the Sino-Canadian Centre for Teachers Professional Development, located in Beijing.
On April 12, high-level officials and educators, including John McCallum, Canadian ambassador to China, and Huang Wei, deputy director of the Teacher Education Department of China’s Ministry of Education, unveiled the new centre.
Representatives of both SEEC-ABMP and BIE were congratulated for this unprecedented cooperation, and for the accomplishments of the two educational institutions, which strive to benefit the current and next generation of educators.
The centre is a wonderful example of what can occur when educational cooperation between China and Canada is taken to the next level, “not only training educators, but doing it together,” McCallum said.
Alan Middleton, SEEC executive director of the centre, and He Jinsong, BIE president, together pointed out that the Sino-Canadian Centre for Teachers Professional Development is an important component of the cooperation between two institutions focused on improving the growth of pedagogical strategies for global learners in China.
The centre is a culmination of the long collaboration between SEEC-ABMP and BIE that was born of mutual interests, objectives and respect. Over the past two years, SEEC-ABMP has delivered more than 20 programs and has trained approximately 1,000 educators in Beijing, in addition to hosting several BIE teachers at York University for long- and short-term training programs.