India: opportunity on a grand scale

ColegauCymru was invited by the UK Government’s Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) to participate in a roundtable discussion in India on 20 April 2012.   The roundtable was jointly organised by the UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) and the Indian Government’s Ministry of Human Resource Development, with the support of the British Council.

Simon Pirotte, Principal of Coleg Powys, represented the FE sector in Wales, alongside Martin Doel, CEO AoC who was the FE representative from England. The blog below outlines Simon Pirotte’s initial thoughts on the event and some ideas for potential Wales-India collaboration in the future.

India: opportunity on a grand scale
by Simon Pirotte

After flight delays, I finally arrived in Delhi at 4 am.  I am here to represent ColegauCymru and Wales’ FE sector at a series of meetings and workshops with government, business and education officials from the UK and India.  The journey from the airport takes me through the city where dogs roam and seem in control of the streets at this time of night.  I am struck by the level of security outside the row of embassies and even on arrival at the hotel, mirrors check underneath my car and bags are scanned.  Straight to bed and up for a meeting at 9 am.

The Indian Government wants to upskill 500 million people by India’s 75th birthday in 2022.  A tall order. 

India will have a population of 1.5 billion people by 2025 and the average age, depending on which report you read, will be around 24.  India is a young nation, especially when compared to China (37) and Western Europe (45).  At each of the meetings I attend over the next two days, speakers talk of the scale of the operation and where India wants to position itself.  In terms of economic growth, India is doing very well. During the recent global challenges, India’s economic growth dropped from 10% to 7%-a picture that would be very welcome to politicians in the UK as we enter our “double dip” recession!  But India is ambitious and is not only looking to fill its own skills gap but is also looking to fill the global skills gap as other nations see their demographics shrink in the future.  UKIERI projects (UK-India Education and Research Initiative) has developed many projects that share some of the best practice from the UK and India igniting joint research between a range of organisations.  These projects have already nurtured a growing relationship between the UK and India.

A key organisation is the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), set up by the Ministry of Finance as a private/public sector partnership.  The NSDC is charged with upskilling 30% of the required 500 million through fostering private sector initiatives in skill development programmes and providing funding.  NSDC has so far signed agreements with 46 training partners-38 companies and 8 sector skills councils (SSCs).  The partners have a target of training 60 million people by 2022.  However, there is still a huge deficit in training required.  The NSDC aims to achieve much of their task through setting up SSCs which will also become awarding bodies.  There will be many more SSCs in India than the model in the UK.

The First Minister of Wales visited India in April.  The future growth of the Welsh economy partly depends on the  strengthening  links between the two nations.  Indian businesses, such as Tata steel, already invest in Wales creating a significant number of jobs.  During his visit, the First Minister promoted the top class education facilities in Wales and our highly skilled workforce.  There is a real opportunity to work together for mutual benefit and to create jobs.  However, there are many countries who want the attention of India and many organisations have already opened offices in Delhi, Bangalore or Mumbai.

The final event  I attend before I leave for the airport is the Skills Round Table discussion and  the Honourable Minister for Labour and Employment, Mr Mallikarjun Kharge, expresses the immediacy of India’s issue.  “We cannot wait for bricks and mortar” he says. Upskilling needs to happen now and India is looking for creative solutions.

The challenge for Wales is to join up our thinking across sectors, address the issue of scale and make the most of the opportunity.

And this is an opportunity on a grand scale.

Wales Week 2012, Chongqing, China: We are as one

Ten students from two of Wales’ further education colleges – Coleg Powys and Coleg Morgannwg - are on a trip of a lifetime, celebrating Wales Week in Chongqing, China (27 February – 3 March 2012), where they are performing a theatre production of Under Milk Wood and hosting workshops on costume construction, makeup and performance for their Chinese counterparts.

Simon Pirotte, Principal of Coleg Powys, is travelling with them.  This is his third and final account of the experience as it unfolds.

Days 5 -8
by Simon Pirotte

Day 5: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant

The day begins with rehearsals in the Welsh Government offices in Chongqing. Tonight, our students are representing Wales in the Saint David Day’s celebration for Wales Week.

We weave Calon Lan into the Chongqing folk song together with extracts from Under Milk Wood. This will be strange! After rehearsals, we go to the market in Old Chongqing. Some of the Chongqing students join us for extra support in the haggling. Our students love it. The smells, the sights and the noise and bustle are exciting. The schedule has been intense and they enjoy some relaxation time. Ian from Coleg Morgannwg shopped till he dropped … he is a new man and his friends back home will never believe that he is now a shopaholic. All sorts of things are bought … framed ancient Chinese names, silk, kites, pan pipes, satin dresses, jewellery, hand-made shoes, candy floss in the shape of flowers, fish-shaped caramelised sugar, engraved wooden combs and 6 colour photos of Llareggub. I made the last one up.

Back on the bus to travel to the St. David’s Day celebrations. Things are a little frenetic. There is no sound system set up yet and we have to restage to fit the layout of the room. As usual, the students are real troopers. Nothing unnerves these wonderful students and they are determined to do their country proud. I think they each deserve an international cap.

It is a slightly surreal experience. We are celebrating St. David’s Day in China. We start with Rachel singing a solo and she is amazing. The room is full of Welsh and Chinese and we are all so impressed. As our students work through the piece, everyone who is Welsh is proud and full of Hiraeth and Chinese members of the audience appreciate the excellent performance. It’s a great way to celebrate everything Welsh. By the time they get to the Reverend Eli Jenkins prayer, it becomes quite moving. “We ask a blessing on the town”… does this mean Chongqing? Or our home town? We are all moved … we are coming to the end of our experience and we will miss our friends. The audience really appreciate adding the folk song and some Chinese text. They join in with the song.

Our students just continue to impress all who come into contact with them.

Day 6: bless this town 

Today’s performance is in the Chongqing City School of Management. It has 12,000 students. It is vast. It feels more like a town than a college. Sophie, one of the students there, tells me that she shares a room of 6 in the accommodation block. Again, students are inquisitive and want to take lots of pictures. More speeches and more exchanges of gifts. Mr Sun is keen to develop cultural exchanges with us.

The performance is in a huge sports hall so the acoustics are terrible. Yet again, our students step up to the plate. The audience is quieter, probably reflecting that the standard of English is quite high. Our Chinese performers are even more confident than two days ago – they are so keen to do well. It gets quite emotional towards the end. This is the last time we will perform with them. By the time we get to the Eli Jenkins prayer, we all realise the significance of the words. Taylor delivers the speech over the harmony with such generosity. He looks into the souls of his fellow performers, Chinese and Welsh, and “asks a blessing on the town” and “says goodbye but just for now.” There is something simple and pure in the room and you would need to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this moment. After the performance, one Chinese student tells me that she wanted to be involved in this project to improve her English … but this experience has become so much more. I know exactly what she means.

In the afternoon, Fran and Steph from Coleg Morgannwg run costume design workshops with fashion students. Both workshops have a Welsh theme and all students are engaged. Coleg Powys actors are models and Chloe even takes over photographic duties. I am pleased to see Coleg Powys students supporting Coleg Morgannwg students who have provided great support for actors all week. The workshops go really well and Chinese students love them. More photographs. I have a cheeky tour around the college with Mr Sun. He is a lovely man and very engaging. They face some of the same challenges that we face in Wales. Interesting to hear him talk about their efforts to engage with industry.

Dinner in the college canteen. It is HUGE! I reflect on the logistics of feeding 12,000 students in a lunch hour. The whole campus/town was built in just 18 MONTHS! They have a saying in Chongqing … ”we will do it” … and I have no doubt that they will!

In the evening, we take our students to The Cotton Club. We walk passed the fast food stalls. I think this the Chongqing of equivalent of Caroline Street in Cardiff or Wind Street in Swansea. The difference is that here you can feast on pig snouts, pig tails, duck heads and other meats of various origins. In the club, we see a brilliant band. There are so many great musicians here. I persuade the owner to let Rachel sing with the band. She sings “Someone Like You” by Adele and the audience go crazy. I write the headline in my head ….”Welsh girl takes Chongqing by storm!” Chinese/Welsh musicians performing so brilliantly … you just couldn’t write this script. Rachel holds her hands in the air… “Thank you Chongqing!”

We are all tired when we get back to the hotel. I think about Yolanda, one of the Chinese students. She gave me a gift today. She made it herself. Earlier in the week, I had shown her pictures of my family. Her gift must have taken her ages to make. It was to wish my family, and particularly my 8 month old son, health and happiness.

I just hope that she becomes a decision-maker of the future. The world would be in safe hands…

Day 7: a magical setting 

Today starts with a cultural visit. We make sheep/duck/cow/noises as we get on the bus because Nia has misheard and thinks it is an agricultural visit! There is more laughter as Nathan does his impression of Paddy from Take Me Out. “Let the Chong see the Qing!”

Rita, a Chinese student who has been working with us this week, is translator for the visit. She is charming and exudes warmth in everything she does. She joins us at 9.30. It is a Saturday. And she has already taken a Business exam this morning and ran all the way here to join us. If you asked her to build us a rocket and take us to the moon, she would do it … and with a smile. Positivity and a strong work ethic just run through her very core like so many people we have met this week.

It is a lovely visit to an ancient temple. There is a beautiful stage where ancient Chinese opera was performed to the Emperor. Our students are allowed to step on this very old stage. They sing the Eli Jenkins Prayer. The sounds of Wales in an oriental setting echo throughout this magical setting. It sums up the week.

In the afternoon, we perform in the Nanshen Mountains Botanical Gardens. This is a performance without our Chinese friends. I sense that they are being missed. It is a tough performance as the audience wander in and out of the space and take lots of photographs. Again, our students are magnificent. The production comes to a close. The end of our visit is now very near.

In the evening, we have dinner. It is “hot pot”, the signature dish of Chongqing. As they say here, “if you haven’t had hot pot, you haven’t visited Chongqing.” Dinner is with Mr Chen Bin from the British Council and VIPs from the Chongqing School of Arts, the Chongqing City School of Management and the Szechuan Language School. They have all been impressed with our students and are keen to develop further links with Wales.

Our thoughts start to turn toward home and our families and friends. Tomorrow, we have the morning with our Chinese friends before we leave for home.

Day 8: We were as one 

The morning begins with ice skating with our Chinese friends and then goodbyes. There is a melancholic mood on the bus to the airport. It is very quiet as we all think through the past week. I am so proud of our students. I would take them anywhere. They have represented their colleges and Wales so well. I ask them for their most memorable moments.

Here are some of the comments:

“The last performance with our Chinese students was my memorable moment. I felt so humble. They were crying in the last section and it obviously meant so much to them. And it did to us.” (Liz)

“The last song [Eli Jenkins prayer] became our anthem. It belonged to all of us. There were no divisions or barriers. We were as one.” (Rachel T) “The last song in our final warm up. No audience. Just us singing it simply for our friends.” (Nia) “The last song. Definitely.” (Rachel C)

“Too many life changing experiences. I can’t just pick one. If I was forced to pick one, it would be Arthur saying to me ‘Shung Di Ho’ which means ‘My brother. My family.’” (Taylor)

“Generally, just working with the Chinese students. They worked so hard in a foreign language.” (Nathan)

“Becoming closer to everyone and being able to relax with people from a very different country.” (Chloe)

“At the beginning of the week, I was disappointed that we weren’t getting out and seeing more of Chongqing. By the end of the week I realised that Chongqing was with us all along through spending time with our Chinese friends. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.” (Kirsty)

Wales Week 2012, Chongqing, China: better than the X Factor

Ten students from two of Wales’ further education colleges – Coleg Powys and Coleg Morgannwg - are on a trip of a lifetime, celebrating Wales Week in Chongqing, China (27 February – 3 March 2012), where they are performing a theatre production of Under Milk Wood and hosting workshops on costume construction, makeup and performance for their Chinese counterparts.

Simon Pirotte, Principal of Coleg Powys, is travelling with them.  This is his second account of the experience as it unfolds.

Day 3 and 4
by Simon Pirotte

Just when you thought that the experience could not get better…

Day 3 sees a continuation of rehearsals with both sets of students from Chongqing and Wales. Chinese students have done their homework and are growing in confidence. The bus journey to the Chongqing School of Performing Arts is a joy. We learn a traditional folk song on the bus. Chongqing students are very patient – each sits next to a Welsh student as Arthur, the leader of the Chinese student group advises me that “one to one tuition is best”. He decides to take on the biggest challenge … me! I look around and can see each double seat full of earnest concentration. Chongqing students are keen to share their beautiful folk song and Welsh students do not want to let the side down and are tenacious in every element of pronunciation. Our Chinese counterparts have demonstrated a fantastic work ethic as they grapple with the text of Under Milk Wood … the very least we can do is demonstrate our respect for their culture by returning the compliment and getting it right. It is an evocative song, created by the workers at ancient Chongqing harbour, and we sing as the bus trundles through the Chongqing streets. The pace of the song picks up as we all become more confident. Again there is laughter (there is always laughter!). I am afraid that we have made it sound a little more like a song from the terraces of a football club but Arthur assures us that we sound great. We announce that we would like to share our national anthem … there is a respectful silence … and then we sing: “Delilah”. More laughter…

We arrive at the school and we are greeted by an electronic sign above the entrance saying “A warm welcome to Coleg Powys and Coleg Morgannwg”. So thoughtful, but we are nervous because this is starting to look like a big deal! Time in the venue is tight so we need to be efficient but everyone knows their job and we crack on.

Day 4

The day begins with notes to the performers and costume work whilst I take two students for an interview with a magazine called “Hello Chongqing.” Once again, the students from Coleg Powys and Coleg Morgannwg are excellent ambassadors for their country. Here they are in Welsh Government offices in Chongqing with an interpreter and answering questions as if it is the most ordinary thing in the world.

Today sees the first performance. And it is a day none of us will ever forget. More hard work and our Chinese friends impress once more with their application and preparation. Everyone is flexible and we adjust to a changing environment. I worry for the member of the school’s estates team as he frantically fixes a curtain on top of a 30 foot ladder. In my head, I am “managing risk!”

The performance begins with speeches. Mr Wen is here – a very important person from the Cultural Bureau. He is introduced and stands to great applause accompanied by patriotic music through the speakers. I am introduced and music plays for me as I stand for the exchange of gifts. It is the theme tune from The Magnificent Seven. Students are far too professional to laugh at me (they reserve that for later) but we all realise that this is going to be a very different experience.

The venue has become packed. Everyone is so inquisitive. We are inundated. There are cameras everywhere.

Chongqing TV is here and a piece on the visit is going to be run to an audience of 30 million. We are twice as big as the X factor!

Students look at me and they look bewildered by it all. The atmosphere is electric and full of anticipation.

The performance begins and we all feel incredibly proud. After two days of rehearsal, our Chinese actors are speaking the words of Dylan Thomas alongside our Welsh actors. The students’ generosity shines through. They look fantastic … I have never seen costumes so well presented thanks to our Coleg Morgannwg students. The biggest compliment I can pay all our performers is that seeing the play with a mixture of Chinese and Welsh performers also seems the most obvious thing in the world.

The Chinese audience talk through the performance. This is not disrespectful … it is their cultural response. They are engaged but discuss the piece as they watch. In one moment, our actors transform their physicality from humans to chickens and this gets a spontaneous round of applause. The audience likes this bit! In fact, they like the very visual sections and moments where actors have really used their physicality to tell a story. After our performance, students from the school perform some of their work. We see some excellent precision and comic timing in one piece. We also are presented a song from The Sound of Music in Chinese. The work is disciplined and engaging.

A workshop follows the performance. More and more students want to join in. The room is now packed with audience members working with cast. They are even translating lines from the play into Chinese as well as delivering the text in English. If you are looking down on us Dylan, I am sure you will be smiling!  After the workshop, students are mobbed. It’s like Beatlemania! Some are giving interviews in front of flashing cameras. They are accomplished diplomats! We cannot leave.

Everyone wants to talk about the piece and have a photograph taken with a Welsh student. There are discussions about creativity and discipline and the similarities and differences in the arts in both cultures. This is better than the X factor!

We leave and have dinner with our Chinese friends. Talk is constant. Photographs on phones are shared and discussed. It strikes us how simple photographs on phones can stimulate the most fundamental cultural discussions: fancy dress parties, Christmas, National Service…

We learn that yesterday was Yolanda’s birthday. She is a Chinese student. We are mortified that no one told us that it was her birthday. In the restaurant, we sing her Penblwydd Hapus. They all learn this song and we sing it a few times. Yolanda tells me that she will remember this birthday forever… she has never had a song sung to her for her birthday but she and her friends will sing this when it is one of their birthdays and spare a moment to think of her Welsh friends.

As we leave the restaurant, a Chinese student says “Nos da”. Someone has taught her it.  Boden, one of our Chinese performers, and interpreter for the day, wants to hear me say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch again. There is no bilingualism strategy here… but Welsh and Chinese blend together amidst the smells of the Chongqing street stalls. A Welsh student has “to begin at the beginning” translated into Chinese and we plan how we can incorporate this and our recently learned folk song into our performance. Students tell me about the thought behind the gifts they have received from their Chinese friends and we all feel very humble. Learning is everywhere. So is “differentiation” and all those other educational terms and strategies that are sometimes so difficult to grasp in any meaningful way. We are buzzing with it all.

I think I should have measured our students before they came out here. They seem two inches taller.

It’s a wonderful world…

Wales Week 2012, Chongqing, China: the ‘can do’ city

Ten students from two of Wales’ further education colleges – Coleg Powys and Coleg Morgannwg - are on a trip of a lifetime, celebrating Wales Week in Chongqing, China (27 February – 3 March 2012), where they are performing a theatre production of Under Milk Wood and hosting workshops on costume construction, makeup and performance for their Chinese counterparts.

Simon Pirotte, Principal of Coleg Powys, is travelling with them.  He writes of his first impressions of the first two days.

Days 1 and 2
by Simon Pirotte, Principal of Coleg Powys

Where do I start?!

Quite simply, Coleg Powys Performing Arts Academy students and Costume construction degree students from Coleg Morgannwg are having a life changing experience.

After a long flight, we finally arrived in Chongqing. We had a few hours between connecting flights, so we managed to take the fast Metro into Hong Kong Island. It was great to stretch the legs and watch the markets being set up on a Sunday morning at the waterside. Jet lag meant that we were wide awake just as Hong Kong was stirring in the haze.
Then, back to Hong Kong airport to continue our journey to Chongqing. We arrive in the city after a 28 hour journey, tired but excited. The bus from the airport to the hotel honked its way through the Chongqing traffic. Our driver, confident in his ability, waltzed through the lanes to the Harbour Plaza hotel. Our students were amazed at the sheer number of people (31 million in Chongqing!) and the vast number of buildings in various states of completion.

The hotel is fantastic! A 5* hotel right in the city centre. As Nathan, one of our students said “I feel like a king. I’m from a council estate in Leeds!”

Before a night’s rest, it was dinner and a quick line run of the piece. Some rose early for a swim or a workout in the gym before breakfast. Bacon and eggs or Dim sum? A tough choice!

Grace from the Wales-Chongqing Further Education Consortium and her colleague Yao Yao are looking after us really well. We then meet the Chinese students who will be working with us this week. Is this a mad idea? We are rehearsing and performing Under Milk Wood with them – what will they make of the piece?

After quick introductions, Viv Buckley from Coleg Powys leads the first workshop. Any apprehensions we have soon disappear. To stand in this room and see our Welsh students open their hearts to their Chinese counterparts is truly inspiring. And similarly, the students from Chongqing throw themselves into the piece. We reflect on how we would feel if the situation was reversed – imagine if someone told you that you were going to rehearse a strange foreign play in Chinese in just two days and then you were going to perform it with Chinese actors in various venues across your city and be the centre of attention to the media in a city with a population of 31 million! And yet, this is the scale of the challenge we are setting them.  But they are “up for the challenge!”

It is little wonder that this is a city where almost half of the world’s laptops will be made – such is the scale of the “can do“ attitude here!

We perform the piece for them and start to fit them into the piece. There are some hilarious moments trying to explain how to say words like “Myfanwy” or “Llareggub” (at which point should we explain Dylan’s joke here? Read it backwards!).  We are performing the piece in traverse style (audience on two sides) which our Chinese performers find quite strange – they are used to more traditional settings. Whilst actors rehearse, led by the Coleg Morgannwg team, design students from both nations are sewing and preparing hair/make up. We are rehearsing in the hotel’s business conference rooms. The man on reception gives me some strange looks as the cries of “what’ll the neighbours say!” in a hybrid Chongqing/Welsh accent ring out. This is obviously not the run of the mill business meeting to which he is accustomed.

The Chinese students are delightful. And it is clear that for them the feeling is mutual. The atmosphere of the rehearsal room is full of laughter but also full of discipline – we are performing this piece in two days’ time so we need to crack on!

After lunch, Viv continues to work with Chinese students and the Welsh contingent change and board the bus for an hour’s journey into the Nanshen mountains where they are performing a short extract for the launch of Wales Week at the National Botanical Gardens. Following the recent visit by the First Minister, the National Botanical Gardens of Wales are here to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to develop future projects together. Our students are followed by flashing cameras and the press. They feel famous: “I could get used to this!” says one. A blond student is asked to have her picture taken with a small child. She reminds her new Chinese friend of Adele. This is now her nickname!

The students open the ceremony. They are superb. Cool as cucumbers.

Remember the song … “Every morning I wake up and thank the Lord that I am Welsh”? This is one of those moments.

I, and Emma and Ian from Coleg Morgannwg, are incredibly proud of them. They look fantastic thanks to the design team. They also sing beautifully. A line from the play comes to mind. “Praise the lord we are a musical nation” says the Reverend Eli Jenkins. We are indeed!

A quick look at another performance space (we are performing the whole piece here on Saturday), another explanation about “traverse” theatre and the accompanying confused looks and it’s back on the bus to the hotel to continue rehearsals.

We get back to the hotel to find that Viv is now fluent in Chinese … well not quite. But she knows a few words and is keen to impress us with her new found skill. It has obviously been a productive few hours and we fit the new sections into the piece. Again, I am struck by the generosity of our students as they guide their Chinese peers through the piece. We feel like we have discovered the answer to World Peace! It seems so clear to us in that rehearsal space.

If every young person in the world could taste this experience, first hand, of sharing each other’s cultures, of teamwork, what sort of world could we live in?

As I write, it is 4am in the morning … I can’t sleep. Jet lag. But also I am inspired by what I have experienced today and my mind is racing. The world news is on CNN in my room. Conflict here … there … and everywhere all over the world. A world that is a million miles away from the atmosphere in our rehearsal room. We are all very, very lucky to have this experience.

After rehearsal, it is dinner. The British Council, who is very kindly funding this visit, take us to a fantastic restaurant. Mirrors and chandeliers everywhere. We have our own private room. Nathan feels like a king again! Yao Yao and Grace patiently talk us through each dish and our students are adventurous trying different tastes and textures. In the “Sky Lounge” back at the hotel we all reflect on the day. As we gaze out at the night enthralled by the lights of the Chongqing skyline from the 37th floor, we feel very content. We discuss teaching styles. Professionals from two of Wales’ further education colleges are sharing practice … not just from a Welsh perspective but from a global perspective. We could go home tomorrow and we have already experienced something incredibly special.

But we have more to achieve this week. The work has only just begun…