'The finest gift from China': Luban Workshops bridge skills gap along Belt and Road after decade of global expansion

TIANJIN, China, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from Global Times:

"The finest gift China offers to Djibouti." This is how Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guellehonce described the Luban Workshop, said Moustapha Mohamed Mahamoud, minister of National Education and Vocational Training of Djibouti at a major event for vocational education in North China's Tianjin Municipality on Friday.
 
Mahmoud's remarks resonated with ministers, educators and business leaders from across the world who gathered in Tianjin to mark the 10th anniversary of China's signature vocational education cooperation program on the sidelines of the 2026 World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference.
 
Foreign participants at the symposium agreed that the Luban Workshop has become a successful model of international cooperation in vocational education under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, and pledged to push the program into a new "golden decade."
 
"The workshops all over the world are helping young people acquire practical skills, meet industrial demand and connect local training systems with the needs of a changing global economy," an official from Thailand told the Global Times on Friday.
 
Back in 2016, the Tianjin Bohai Vocational Technical College and the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Technical College jointly launched the world's first Luban Workshop.
 
The program was built around the EPIP model – Engineering Practice Innovation Project – a teaching approach that emphasizes hands-on learning and real-world industrial problem-solving.
 
Over the past 10 years, that first workshop has grown into a durable China-Thailand cooperation platform, according to Sanga Taechersai, deputy secretary-general of the ministry's Office of the Vocational Education Commission. He said the two sides have built a solid partnership in science, technology and culture, adding that Thailand remains grateful for China's continued support in equipment, curriculum development and personnel exchanges.
 
"We gather here not only to celebrate achievements, but also to lay the foundation for the next 10 years," he told the conference.
 
Loyda Barreda, director general of Nicaragua's National Technological Institute, said Nicaragua was the first country in the Americas to establish a Luban Workshop, and that the program now offers training in internet-of things, application technology, electrical automation, electromechanical systems, and mechanical manufacturing and automation – sectors seen as vital to industrial development.
 
The workshop has become an important contributor to the country's poverty reduction by supplying skilled workers for productive industries, Barreda noted.
 
In March 2019, the first Luban Workshop in Africa opened at the Djibouti Chamber of Commerce Business School, training young professionals in strategic fields such as railway engineering, railway operations, international trade and logistics management. Mahmoud outlined three priorities going forward: improving graduate employment and social integration, narrowing the gap between training and enterprise needs, and working with Chinese partners to upgrade the workshop into a dedicated training center to help Djibouti become a regional hub of excellence.
 
In Europe, the Luban Workshop at Portugal's Polytechnic Institute of Setubal, established in December 2018, has trained more than 500 degree students and developed bilingual textbooks and teaching resources, said Jose Lucas, head of the workshop. Local firms in aviation maintenance, shipbuilding and automobile manufacturing are deeply involved in curriculum design – a sign, he said, that the workshop is not a closed academic space but a living bridge to the labor market.
 
Participants also discussed how to keep vocational education relevant in a world shaped by automation, artificial intelligence and rapidly evolving industry standards. At a time when many countries are seeking to connect education more closely with employment, the Luban model offers a simple but powerful proposition: teach skills that match real demand, and build institutions that can grow with local industry.
 
The Luban Workshops program is named after Lu Ban, an ancient Chinese woodcraft master believed to be the father of Chinese carpentry and architecture, which takes aim at cultivating technical experts worldwide to serve local economies.
 
After a decade of development, the workshop has yielded fruitful results and formed a replicable and sustainable apprenticeship model to share Chinese experience in the area of vocational education.
 
According to official data, China has so far established 38 Luban Workshops in 32 countries, providing academic education to more than 30,000 students and non-degree training to over 160,000 participants.

SOURCE Global Times