To deepen the outcomes of industry-education integration, align with the talent demands of the new materials and intelligent manufacturing sectors, and explore pathways for cultivating new-quality technical and skilled talent oriented toward future industries, Vice President Yan Xiaoli led a delegation to Evonik Shanghai Innovation Park on August 20 for a school-enterprise research and exchange visit. The discussions focused on collaborative education models, student empowerment programs, and practical integration of chemical engineering programs with industry, aiming to address the real challenges of matching talent supply with industrial demand amid ongoing industrial upgrading.
Vice President Yan Xiaoli and her team engaged in extensive exchanges with Evonik Specialty Chemicals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd., the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF), and seven peer institutions including Nanjing Polytechnic Institute. Together, they explored pathways for cultivating new-quality talent oriented toward future industries, built consensus on jointly nurturing young talent in the chemical sector, and broadened communication channels for industry-education integration.
As part of this research visit, Vice President Yan Xiaoli participated in the 2026 Evonik School-Enterprise Roundtable Forum, which brought together guests from CPCIF, Evonik China, Bosch Philanthropy Center, and the 21st Century Education Research Institute. The forum featured in-depth dialogues on topics such as chemical industry development trends, talent competency changes driven by digital and green transformation, and collaborative education involving schools, enterprises, and the industry. Following the roundtable, Yan Xiaoli gave an exclusive interview to the 21st Century Business Herald on the topic of cultivating new-quality talent in the chemical sector.
In the afternoon, the research team observed the finals of the Sustainable Future Chemistry Innovation Challenge for higher vocational students, where our school's participating teams presented their project. The team cheered for our contestants and, at the same time, gained a close-up view of the innovative achievements of young students, further clarifying the direction for fostering innovation capabilities among chemical engineering students.
Our school has maintained a long-standing and close partnership with Evonik, steadily advancing the "Grow Beyond Yourself, Empower the Future" vocational empowerment program for female higher vocational students. Through diverse platforms such as innovation competitions, enterprise practice, and professional competency development, the program supports chemical engineering students in their growth and career development.
This research exchange, enriched by the valuable insights gained from the roundtable discussions and innovation competition observation, has further consolidated the foundation of our bilateral school-enterprise cooperation, expanded collaborative opportunities in the fields of new materials and intelligent manufacturing, and provided important industry benchmarking references for optimizing the talent cultivation plans of our chemical engineering programs.
Going forward, our school will continue to advance "Enterprise Visit and Job Expansion" special initiative, translating the industry trends and talent competency requirements identified during this research into actionable reforms in education and teaching. We will unblock the collaborative education chain among vocational colleges, enterprises, and the industry, diligently implement various student empowerment programs, and push industry-education integration to deeper and more substantive levels, ultimately delivering a greater number of high-quality technical and skilled new-quality talents to enterprises.