Expanding cooperation in education and human resources is an important consensus between China and African countries. While the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is underway in Dakar, Senegal from November 29th to 30th, we make a feature report about Luban Workshop, which is a project in line with the instructions of Chinese and Ethiopian leaders, and a part of the endeavour to implement the outcomes of FOCAC Beijing Summit.
Tabor Tameru is a graduating student of Mechanical Engineering at Addis Ababa Science and Technology University (AASTU) He is now working an internship in Luban Workshop, a modern technical workshop that went operational recently in Ethiopia’s Technical University (ETU). The Workshop avails opportunities for engineering students to practically learn robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Mechatronics.
The workshop is named after Luban, a legendary Chinese carpenter symbolizing as a role model for craftsmen worldwide for his ingenuity and dedication.
“At AASTU we used to learn theoretically. We hope that we could produce various programs and test or experiment with the result. We have also learned how to program robots and the use of sensors, how to design mechatronics for various specific tasks”, Tabor remarked.
Almost all universities in Ethiopia train students in various fields of engineering. But all of them focus more on theoretical education and lack access to practical education sessions. But through Luban Workshop, ETU could apply a different curriculum and approach of teaching which aims to shift the trend of the teaching from theoretical to practical skills development approach.
“To shift the orientation from theory to skills development it is important to establish a nationwide Technical Vocational Education and Training (EVET) institution. The University gives special attention to skills development.” says Dr Teshale Berecha, Director General of ETU.
ETU started as a technical, vocational Education and Training (TVET) college 13 years ago with the full support of the government of China. The University built by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and Tianjin City Government aims to help Ethiopia transform its engineering capacity.
Ever since it started operation, ETU has been working in close collaboration with Tianjin University of Technical Education (TUTE), one of the prestigious technical Universities in China.
As part of the efforts to transform the teaching-learning from theoretical to practical skills development approach, ETU has launched a new and sophisticated technical workshop. During the FOCAC summit in 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced his government’s plan to establish 10 Luban Workshops in Africa. As per the plan which is part and parcel of China Africa Cooperation, the Ethiopian Luban workshop went operational April of this year.
The Workshop is a project in line with the instructions of Ethiopian and Chinese leaders, which is the latest fruit of deepening cultural and education cooperation between the our two brotherly countries. Nowadays, the Workshop plays an important role in Ethiopia’s efforts to nurture more professional talents, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, and boost employment, industrialization and modernization.
“Teaching one to fish is better than giving him fish”, says Jiang Jiang, the technical teacher and Director of Confucius Institute at ETU. “China and Africa Cooperation has various angles. One is technical and vocational training. Africa has a young labour force. The advanced skilled labour force will bring bright future for Africa”
Luban Workshop is believed to bring about significant improvement in the university’s education. Among other things, the Luban Workshop provides access to training students in Mechatronics, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, the latest technologies of the 21st century.
“Since April 2021 we have built this Luban Workshop. It meets state of the art equipment of international standards.” Jiang Jiang added.
“Now the country is moving towards digitalization. Industries are going towards automation. There is a need to prepare human resource that helps the migration from manual to digitalization. Therefore this workshop fits this demand” said Dr Teshale.
It also helps to improve the skills meet the market of job employment and will improve the impetus for the home grown economic developments.
Currently, the world is at the fourth generation of the industrial revolution where industries widely apply robotics, Artificial Intelligence and mechatronics among other sophisticated technologies. But many African countries including Ethiopia remain behind in introducing and adequately implementing these vital technologies to compete with the rest of the world.
“Our new generation of workers is not into the simple low-level work because when the fourth industrial revolution comes they must have the high intelligence and knowledge. You cannot get this knowledge in traditional industry or factory” said Jiang Jiang.
These technologies are applicable in many manufacturing industries. Ethiopia is building state of the art industrial parks where high tech industries operate to boost its manufacturing capacity. Therefore the human resource that works in these factories should also be well trained in the application of Robotics, AI and mechatronics.
“When we visit the industrial parks, we seldom find that that program robots used. Actually, in today’s global competition even African countries like Ethiopia can have these high precision industries. Ethiopia has the potentiality to have such jobs if the young people have a chance to such training for high precision robotics, mechatronics and AI” Jiang Jiang explained.
Universities and technical, vocational education institutes should also train students more practically so that the students can effectively handle the activities of the fourth generation of industries.
“In Ethiopia, we are still at the level I and Level II of the industrial revolution. But the industrial revolution in the world has attained Level IV technology. There is no human resource that operates these technologies in Ethiopia. If I could get this chance, my wish is to help the growth of the Ethiopian industry. I want to excel in the design and application of robotics, mechatronics” Tabor said.
According to Teshale, previously universities and colleges in the country trained these fields theoretically and using simulation. But at Luban Workshop engineering students have a chance to learn skills practically.
“This workshop helps to teach students how to do this. Students can sit in a room and control the activities of any factory” he said.
The university has so far trained more than 10 thousand students since its establishment. To speed up the digitalization of the industry sector, Ethiopia has to train as many students as possible to feed the forthcoming high–tech industries. Therefore ETU mainly focuses on the training of TVET teachers as well as technical education leaders.
“At a national level, there are 600 TVETs under government and more than 900 under private ownership. If we do not work on teachers we cannot ensure quality training. We also have to change the culture of working manually. Theoretical knowledge alone cannot be fruitful”
To serve this big demand of technical teachers and educational leaders, ETU trains students by recruiting directly from secondary schools as well as through upgrading programs, Teshale Noted.
While maintaining its strong collaboration with Chinese Universities like TUTE, ETU is striving to become self-reliant in human resources. Accordingly, it is giving all its undergraduate training programs with its staff that hold at least masters degrees.
Setting a goal to offer master’s degree programs with its staff in the coming three years, the University is also training more than 40 teachers at PhD levels of which 20 are attending their education in China.
Teshale however reiterated that the working relations between the University and Chinese University would not end even after it replaces all staff with local human resources. The cooperation would continue in short term training and staff exchange.
BY ZEKARIAS WOLDEMARIAM
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD DECEMBER 1/2021
