College History

Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Language and Arts(GTCFLA), a vocational college run by the Guangdong provincial government, was founded in December 2001 through the merger of the former Guangdong Foreign Language Normal School (founded in 1978) and the former Guangdong Art Normal School (founded in 1983). The year 2021 marked as a milestone in the development of the college, with three more schools joining: Guangdong Social Work School, Guangdong Foreign Trade School and Guangdong Trade Vocational Technical School.

Campuses

Based in Guangzhou, the college has six campuses, including Wushan, Yanling, Haizhu, Longdong, Tianpingjia and Huadu campuses, withan area of 43.2 hectares and a construction area of 359.2 thousand square meters. It is currently home to 15,463 full-time students in the higher vocational education sector, 8,683 full-time students in the secondary vocational education sector, and 3,280 students in the adult education sector. With garden-like campuses and superior facilities, the college has won such honors as Guangdong Provincial Model Vocational College, Guangdong Model College in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Guangdong Model College in Campus Running, and Guangdong Model College in Safety.

The Staff

The college has a staff of 1,168,includingNationalOutstandingTeachers, May 1st Labor MedalWinners, Excellent Teachers in the Vocational Education at the National Level, Guangdong Model Teachers, and leading experts and talents in the various sectors both at the provincial and the national level. There are also 5outstandingteaching groups and 5 leading experts at the provincial level, 68 program leaders, 65 backbone teachers and researchers. 45 teachers serve as experts and consultants in various committees in their respective fields.

Talent Training and CollegeProgram Construction

The college follows the motto of “Well-versed in both Chinese and Western Learning; Excellent in Moral Character and Scholarly Pursuit”,andadheres to the education philosophy of“Focusing on both learning and practice; Improving ethical and artistic training; Being open and collaborative; Developing with GTCFLA features.”The goal of the college is todeliver excellence in teacher development and make a difference in vocational education.To achieve that,ithas been implementing the teaching reform program of“customization in talent training, product-orientation in teaching results, digitalization in teaching methods and internationalizationin teaching horizon”.Implementation ofthe program helps to constructthe overall talent training mode of“HAPPY+”Dual Core Synergy, which emphasizes both vocational core competencies and professional core competencies. With this mode, the vocational core competence training work has reached the leading level in the country, and the employment quality of the graduates is high, ranking among the best of its kind in Guangdong.GTCFLA has explored a path ofinnovation andentrepreneurshipeducation in highervocationalcolleges, namely“Assignments–Products-Commodities”, which can be realized respectively by the teaching reforms, the college’s Project Center and Business Incubation Base. The college has been working to integrate the“1+X”certificate system into its talent training program. Many of its teaching programs have applied for the pilot project of“1+X”Certificate of Vocational Skills. Due to the efforts of its vocational education group members, the college has developed the VocationalSkillLevelStandardfor Cantonese Cuisines and Dim Sum, which are both included in the fourth batch of“1+X”certificates by the Ministry of Education.

Following the tenet of “College-Enterprise Partnership; Work-Study Combination”, GTCFLA aims toservethe development of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and key areas of modern service industry in Guangdong. The college has been focusing on areas such as business services, information technology, arts, culture,andeducation, creating SpecialtyGroups of categories including Teacher Education, Language and Culture, Art and Design, Performing Arts, Computer Application Technology, Finance and Commerce, and Catering Services. Among them, 7 programs have been listed as High Level Program Groups. Besides, the college is geared towards the well-being of people and offers programs like Civil Service Management, Elderly Services and Wedding Celebrations, and is one of the first national demonstration sites for Elderly Services among vocational colleges.

The college now has 51programs, 3 National Key Programs, 14 provincial demonstration/key/brand programs and central government funded programs. In terms of course construction, the college has 6 NationalTop Level Courses Projects, 20 Provincial Online Open Courses, and 3 Massive OpenOnline Courses. Awards and honors received include the 2ndPrize of National Teaching AchievementAwards forVocationalEducation, the 1st Prize of Teaching AchievementAwardsin ChineseDancers Association, the 1st Prize and 2nd Prize of National TeachingSkills Competition in Vocational Colleges.

Internship and Training Conditions

Thecollegehas advanced training equipment and a number ofexcellentinternship training bases. In 2017, the college was recognized by National Centre for Schooling DevelopmentProgram as a selected school for the MOE·CSDP VR Laboratory for the World. It has established 3training bases funded by the central government, 4 provincial training bases and 2 school training bases. It has 9 Off-Campus PracticalTeaching Bases at the provincial level and 9 at the college level, 500 Off-campus PracticeBases,337professional training classrooms and up to14104training seats.The training equipment and conditions are at the leading level among its kind in Guangdong.

Social Services

GTCFLA plays a leading role in the associations of many sectors such as vocational education, foreign language studies and pre-schooleducation.Itco-educates undergraduates with many sister colleges and universities in Pre-school, Chinese Literature and Foreign Language Learning and Studies,etc. With itstraditional predominant disciplines, it also spares no efforts to support many newly founded colleges in Guangdong province to facilitate the development of pre-school education,e.g.Jiangmen Pre-school Education College and ShantouPre-schoolEducationCollege.

It has been the training base for primary & secondary teachers’development and vocational education. For decades, it has been focusing on the training programs of teaching resources in the less developed areas, teachers in shortage and preschool to facilitate teachers’development.

Thecollege is renowned in the catering industry.As the leading member in the associations of the catering industry, it has founded the College of the Masters ofCantoneseCuisine.It provides quality services in cuisine techniques, management and cooperation with the industry, exerting a great influence in the relevant fields, winning the title of“Bakers’Cradle”.

As a leading member in vocational education, foreign trade and secondary vocational education, it is in long term cooperation with foreign trade association and industries to develop human resources in the relevant industries. Our college engages in the training and certification of the vocational skills andcompetencewith provincial vocational associations, such asGuangdong Chamber of Commerce forImport andExport, Guangdong Association ofForeignEconomic andTrade enterprises.For its great contributions, it hasearnedthe title of “theCradleforTalentsinForeign Trade andEconomicCooperation”.

The college attaches great importance to the historical inheritance and innovation of traditional Chinese culture,establishing the first Guangdong Music Exhibition Hall, which has become the "Chinese Culture Inheritance Base" in Guangdong province.As the affiliated member of Guangdong Language Training and Testing center,it shoulders the responsibility for the guidance and management of language training and testing in Guangdong. It is also a memberof Guangdong Pre-school Education Association,engaging in the research and management,bringing an impetus to the development of kindergarten teaching resources.

International Cooperation

The college iskeen on cooperating with overseas institutionsandhas established connections with 35 colleges, including Birmingham University in UK.It provides quality social services in the sector of language training, such as English, French and Korean. Underthe Belt and Road Initiative, the collegeis bound to play a greater role in the development of the Greater Bay Area.

(Dataupdated till Sept.1st 2021)