Luban Workshop Industry and Education Integration and Development League, set up in late April in Tianjin, comprises 32 companies and 18 vocational colleges.

When the league was set up, a number of local business chambers from African countries sent congratulatory letters and expressed a desire to welcome more graduates.

According to the 2020 Luban Workshop Construction and Development Report made by the Luban Workshop Research and Development Center of Tianjin Academy of Educational Science, a total of 66 schools and companies have established partnerships with Tianjin's Luban Workshops.

Figures related to collaboration between companies and workshops involving colleges from other provinces have not been released by authorities, but the momentum is growing.

"Generally, we divide their collaborations into two types. First, the workshops partner with independent companies, for example, the Djibouti facility partnered with China Civic Engineering Construction Corp, a high-speed railway builder. Also, one in India partnered with the Sinoma International, a State-owned materials producer. In addition, workshops in Kenya and South Africa have partnered with Huawei.

"Second, the workshops also partner with industrial parks set up by Chinese companies, including Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park built by private Chinese firm Tiantang, and China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone," Yang said.

Chen Sichang, general manager of China Civic Engineering Construction Corp, who was elected chairman of the league, said: "Luban Workshop provides quality and sustainable intelligence support for Chinese companies overseas and helps meet their needs for quality staff members."

Hassan Mohamed, deputy general manager of the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway, said: "The Luban Workshop set up in Djibouti in 2019 provided strong support for high-quality technical skills training, and consequently improved the skills of railway staff to better serve the major link.

"Djibouti aims to become a regional shipping and commercial center in Africa by 2035. Railway-related training will help meet the country's goals," Mohamed said.

China Civic Engineering Construction Corp built Djibouti's first modern railway, a network equipped with advanced electronic technologies from China. The railway connects Ethiopia and Djibouti since it entered service in 2016.

In Thailand, China's investment of some 52.4 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) in a high-speed rail project linking three major airports in the country's east economic corridor, due to open 2024, is expected to create 16,000 jobs, reported the 21st Century Business Herald.

In the next five years, thanks to the high-speed rail line, 100,000 jobs, in particular for tech professionals, will be available.

The railway will help the country generate a combined revenue of up to 650 billion baht ($20.8 billion) over the next five years and better aid the "Thailand 4.0" economic vitalization strategy.

Suthep Kaengsantea, secretary-general of the vocational education committee of the Ministry of Education in Thailand, said, "The workshop involving 125 million baht and six international new majors meets labor market demand with state-of-the-art technologies in Thailand."

Teshome Toga Chanaka, Ethiopian ambassador to China, said during the opening ceremony of the Luban Workshop initiated by the Tianjin University of Technology and Education in late April, as human capital building is the backbone of any nation's development, the Luban Workshop will feed Ethiopia's industries with required skills, promote the local economy and speed up social development.

The high-end skill training in artificial intelligence, which is the main focus of the workshop, will not only narrow skill gaps in modern industries, but also provide more opportunities for Ethiopian youth and make them competent and ready for global market competition, he said.

In addition, the workshop has eased the bottlenecks that Chinese companies experience overseas when scouting for top-level local talent, as such firms have seen a growing offshore presence.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce indicated that China's direct investment in Africa hit $2.96 billion in 2020, covering 47 countries.

Private firms from China accounted for 90 percent of the direct investment by Chinese companies in Africa.

Shen Yanchang, president of Sunda International Group, a company based in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, said the company has been extending its reach to 20 countries in Africa since 2004, and the group's recent partnership with Wuhan Institute of Shipbuilding Technology's Luban Workshop mainly fosters talented engineers in Ghana.

"The spirit of Lu Ban, along with Chinese peoples' hard work and enthusiasm, make up the soul of the workshop," Shen said.

Currently, the workshop program is confronted with challenges from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Some overseas colleges have not resumed their classes due to contagion control measures.

"We will continue efforts to upgrade curriculum resources, facility, and quality supervision," said Yang, who is now mapping out the strategy for the workshop over the next five years.

Wang Juan, director of International Communication Department under the Tianjin Light Industry Vocational Technical College, who participated in the building of two Luban shops in Egypt, said: "We not only train students, but more importantly, we train teachers of the colleges in foreign countries and provide facilities. After the training, Chinese teachers will leave and local teachers will continue the curricula," Wang said.

"We are tutoring talent in various fields and they are adaptable to current industrial trends," she added.

Jose Pedro Magalhaes Lucas, who is in charge of the Luban Workshop at the Polytechnic Institute of Setubal in Portugal, said, "The benefits of the program have been enormous."

Since 2018, the institute's workshop students have been trained in areas such as electrical automation, advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence.

"Our teachers have been given the opportunity to develop better research abilities, helping to develop our supervision systems for industries," he said.