Chongqing Vocational Education Supports Chinese Construction Projects in Africa

In July 2026, Chongqing Jianzhu College dispatched a professional team composed of teachers specializing in construction and transportation engineering and Chinese language teachers to Ethiopia to carry out "Chinese + Construction and Road & Bridge Engineering" skills training. Focusing on the actual needs of Chinese enterprises such as Eastern Industry Park PLC, Hunan Road & Bridge Construction Group Co. LTD, Ethiopian Branch, and Sansheng Building Materials PLC, the college, through its mature "Construction Site Classroom" teaching model, supports localized talent development for Chinese enterprises' overseas infrastructure projects.

On-site practical training

Photo provided by Chongqing Jianzhu College

The Eastern Industry Park is the country's first industrial park and the only national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone established by Chinese private enterprises in Ethiopia. Sansheng Building Materials, which entered the park in 2016, has achieved over 90% localization of its workforce. With language as a bridge, this training facilitates skills transfer and cultivates qualified localized talent for Chinese-funded enterprises.

"At the 'Construction Site Classroom,' we adopt bilingual teaching in Chinese and English, embedding Chinese expressions of professional terms directly into the practical training process, so that trainees can give and receive instructions and deliver work reports in Chinese," said Tang Xu, a teacher on the team.

On-site teaching

Photo provided by Chongqing Jianzhu College

Tigist Agonafir, a production operator at Sansheng Building Materials, said that through the training, he learned to say the names of equipment and materials in Chinese and can now communicate directly with Chinese engineers.

The teaching team also brought the "Construction Site Classroom" into the TBK Highway Rehabilitation Project implemented by Hunan Road & Bridge Ethiopian Branch in the Central Ethiopian Region. "Overseas road and bridge projects are in urgent need of localized talent who understand Chinese, are familiar with technical standards, and can perform practical operations. The training curriculum is designed closely around these three core aspects, deeply integrating theoretical teaching with real project scenarios to create an effective link between learning and practice," said Yu Le, a teacher on the team.

Mulualem Mengesha Terfe, a construction technician at the project department, believes that this model of "learning theory first and getting hands-on practice the next day" helped him resolve the problem of "knowing the standards but finding it difficult to perform standardized operations."

Teaching scene 

Photo provided by Chongqing Jianzhu College

The "Construction Site Classroom," driven by real projects, is an overseas extension of the college's educational philosophy of "integrating learning with practice and uniting knowledge with action," as well as an innovative practice of government-college-enterprise collaboration. In recent years, the college has worked with various Ethiopian government departments and Chinese enterprises to build a regular and diversified international education framework, established a systematic teaching ecosystem locally, and has sent 6 teachers to Ethiopia in total, training more than 4,000 local workers in total.

Besides carrying out training, the team visited local research institutes and universities, assessed local talent needs, and reached consensus on cooperation in areas such as joint education and teacher exchanges, receiving recognition and support from the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia. "During the 14-day visit to Ethiopia, we felt the local trainees' eagerness to learn Chinese, understand Chinese culture, and master China's advanced construction technologies, which gave us a clearer understanding of the significance of the college's efforts to promote the deep integration of industry and education between China and Africa," said Li Weixin, head of the team.

From Chongqing to the East African highlands, Chongqing Jianzhu College leverages its strengths in architecture, exports engineering construction technology and vocational education experience to Africa, and builds a distinctive model of Chongqing vocational education going global, contributing to the building of a China-Africa community with a shared future and supporting the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.