South African students complete specialized vocational training at Beijing Polytechnic College

China

South African students complete specialized vocational training at Beijing Polytechnic College

2026-01-25 17:33 Last Updated At：01-26 12:47

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠South Africa held a ceremony in its administrative capital Pretoria on Friday to welcome back 36 students who successfully completed a one-year vocational training program at the Beijing Polytechnic College.

During their stay in China, the students acquired specialized training in the “Just Energy Transition” field, which is focused on advancing the ongoing shift from fossil fuels to clean energy. The program was domiciled under China's International Scholarship Program and is part of a broader people-to-people and skills cooperation between China and South Africa. Students said they gained essential technical knowledge, international experience and exposure to cutting-edge innovation. Sanele Cele, one of the youngsters who undertook the initiative, said it was the fulfillment of a personal dream for him.

"Today, this a moment to be remembered, because as I was growing up, it was my dream to actually go to China, except from being registered in any program. But it was always my dream to go to China. But then last year, I got an opportunity to be enrolled in this program, and felt like it was a dream come true. Now I have completed my training from rural areas to global innovation," he said. "China is a very innovative country, and their technology is out of this world, and I think having to learn from such an innovative country is a bonus for us as South Africans, because we could learn so much that we can put in action when we come [back] to South Africa," said Itumeleng Masina, another of the returned students. Dr. Nomusa Dube-Ncube, deputy minister of South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training, said some of the technologies these students trained on have not yet been introduced to South Africa, adding that their experience would contribute to the development of their country.

"It's so exciting because not only are the TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) college students, second- and third-year students, they've now gained practical experience on the actual electric vehicles, the safety, combustion, and you've heard when they were talking about it, some of the things that have not even come to South Africa yet, which means the technology that they have been using there is technology that is going to help us now advance," she said.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.