Tailored courses
UK schools, colleges, higher education institutions and specialist education and training providers are experienced in adapting their models of education and training overseas.
To address Chinese needs from different types of partners, the UK education providers have made the best of tailor making.
"One of the key aspects of our delivery is finding a blend between an academic deliverer and practitioner-based delivery team," said Mark Carberry, head of Executive Education of the Moller Centre at the University of Cambridge, during an interview with Ecns.cn.
"[A very important thing is] not always delivering what we are initially asked to deliver. And what I mean by that is actually being able to correlate response from participants as well as the organization," he said.
"When we're designing programs, we are obviously listening to the needs of the organization and also requesting that we can speak to potential participants," he explained. "This helps provide a more comprehensive program for everyone involved."
When talking about tailor making, Liu said it is not only about the content but also the teaching faculty, venue, facilities, and approaches in training.
"In the past, training courses in China were either delivered by Chinese partners or UK partners. But now we are seeing more joint approaches in offering training courses," Liu said.
China is a market in which it is worthwhile for UK providers to tailor-design courses, she emphasized.
Seeking business development
The UK's training business is currently concentrated in big metropolises including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but this situation may change in the next five years.
"It's a continued exercise to raise the UK brand in education and training," Li said. "We want to also bring this image to second-tier cities, to the wide regional cities."
"This event, in particular, is a start," Li added. "Our companies and organizations from the UK have really open minds to do business and reshape their thinking to best match market demand."
Liu also agreed on this. "Finance is only a starting point. [There are] a couple of other industries for us to focus on during the following five years, including logistics, asset management, free trade zone talent enhancement, and risk management."
"We are working very closely with the Chinese government on a very wide range of sub-sectors in the education market," she said.
"With the Chinese economy entering this phase of the 'new normal', we are looking at entrepreneurship innovation becoming a new growth engine. That's not just in financial services but more broadly as well," Carberry noted.
Education offered by the UK's professional bodies and corporate training providers often ensure high standards of competence in areas such as business and financial services, accountancy, marketing, insurance, and financial crime prevention.
As China is pressing ahead on many reforms, it is hoped that the UK's training business development would help build a greater reserve of talent.
