Events In Education and Asian Society This Week                                     June 7, 2004

Last Weeks News/Events:  

China: Vocational training to be offered for to-be migrant rural labourers, Xinhua, 31 March 2004.

The Chinese government is planning to launch a national vocational training program targeting the 10 million to-be rural migrant laborers across the country, which will help them improve job skills and thus increaserural income."

Six Chinese ministries, namely the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Construction, jointly released a circular Wednesday, urging local governments to launch the training program for the local rural migrant labor force.

Areas of training include Housekeeping, Catering & Restaurant Services and Construction & Manufacturing. The cost of Training will be jointly paid by trainees and Government. Most training lasts between 15-90 Days

http://www.asianlabour.org/archives/001322.html

China Works With UNICEF to Protect Country Girls

2004-06-01 22:58:43

…The booklet, which tells in simple words and vivid pictures how rural girls should protect themselves from human traffickers, is compiled by the United Nations Children''s Fund (UNICEF), All-ChinaWomen''s Federation and the Ministry of Public Security and is provided for free to country girls like Chen Jing who want to finda job in cities.

In another development, UNICEF has co-sponsored a training program with the women''s federation to train country girls from Renshou county as hotel waitresses and housekeepers. The first 20 trainees, all aged from 16 to 20 and have only finished junior high school, started a six-month training Tuesday to learn etiquette, standard Mandarin and hotel services in order to qualify for jobs at star-level hotels in the provincial capitalChengdu.

http://english.people.com.cn/200406/02/eng20040602_145105.html

Education Seen Crucial to ICT future

Lawrence Casiraya, MANILA, ComputerWorld, June 2, 2004

The country needs to further strengthen its educational program and the English proficiency of Filipinos to be able to maintain its inherent advantages in the global information and communication technology (ICT) industry. Referring primarily to ICT-driven services such as call centres and business process outsourcing (BPO), the former president of the Australia-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines noted that Filipinos have already established a good reputation abroad.
"But we don''t have enough English-speaking people. We need to do something about education. We need to have the proper courseware to produce the right skills," Wallace said. "The entry-level salary for call centres, which is somewhere between 12,000 to 15,000 pesos, is good," said Wallace. "But only 5 % of applicants interviewed reportedly get accepted."
Wallace stressed the need to strengthen the Filipinos'' English proficiency to support the demand. The Board of Investments (BOI) is projecting the number of call centre seats to double to about 40,000 this year.
The Philippines is regarded as the best destination for outsourcing call centre operations in Asia. The country only lags behind India when it comes to BPO services.

http://www.computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/0/AE48C78F2C76EFFFCC256EA6006901FD?OpenDocument

Upcoming Events:

The 4th Asian Youth Forum

AYF4 will be hosted in conjunction with the PAC5 conference, June 23-28, 2004 . The Asian Youth Forum is a unique youth event which brings together college-aged young people from Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and other Asian countries to discuss language, culture, global issues and international understanding through the medium of English-as-an-Asian-language. The AYF will include both academic events (seminars on language learning, leadership, world problems, Asian stereotypes) and social events (local excursions, local homestays, cultural performances).

Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education (REE) ASIA 2004 for Scientists and Engineers!

The 2004 REE ASIA Conference will be held from 29th to 30th July 2004 in SINGAPORE at the NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House, National University of Singapore
Co-organized by
NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, National University of Singapore
Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), Stanford University
& Lester Center for Entrepreneurship
& Management of Technology Program, University of California Berkeley

Organization Profile: This section highlights Education and Social development Organization or Program

2004 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education

In June 2003 Asia Society and The Goldman Sachs Foundation created the first ever Prizes for Excellence in International Education to promote international knowledge and skills in our schools and communities. The program will annually award five prizes of $25,000 each in the following categories:

Elementary/Middle School
An elementary or middle school that engages all or most of its students in learning about other world regions, cultures and languages.

High School
A secondary school that engages all or most of its students in learning about Asia, Africa, Latin America or the Middle East, or about international affairs through its curriculum and through partnerships with other countries or local organizations.

State
A state that is actively promoting the development of international knowledge and skills on a wide scale through the creation of robust state policies and specific programmatic initiatives.

Higher Education
A higher education institution that shows exceptional commitment to promoting international knowledge and skills K-16 through its teacher preparation program or through creating ongoing partnerships with local schools to introduce international content.

Media/Technology
A private sector or nonprofit organization that has developed outstanding programs that use media/technology to educate students or teachers about other world regions and cultures, or international issues.