BEIJING: A decade of the BRI has seen universities, colleges adapt curriculums accordingly
Chinese universities and vocational colleges are revamping their curriculum to meet the soaring demand for talent with multilingual skills and cross-cultural awareness as the Belt and Road Initiative expands its global reach.
China has signed BRI-related documents with more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations, according to official figures.
The expansion has reversed the trend of declining popularity of English majors and other language programs from the early 2010s as workers with multilingual skills have become increasingly in demand by employers wishing to expand their global footprint under the framework of the BRI, said Chen Fachun, president of Tianjin Foreign Studies University.
“The rollout of the BRI greatly bolstered the confidence of our college and its language education-focused peers,” he said at a roundtable discussion at the 2023 Belt and Road Forum for Language and Culture Collaboration. The theme for the discussion was “Experience and Inspiration on Improving Linguistic Connectivity along the Belt and Road”.
The forum serves as the inaugural meeting of the Belt and Road Languages and Cultures Network, which was created to help reduce language barriers and ease cultural misunderstandings among BRI participants. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
