NPUST’s president Chang-Hsien Tai has been promoting long-term care development and professional talent cultivation consistently throughout his time at the university’s helm. One avenue where this is taking place is within the “aging society” orientated Platinum Society initiative, which serves as one of the four main axes of development at the university.
The concerted attention that has been given to the topic of long-term care has resulted in the establishment of such courses as the “Cross-domain Long-Term Care Module Curriculum” and the “Long-term Care Human Resource Training Curriculum” – courses which provide students with interdisciplinary, capability-enhancing subject matter.
Recently, in order to help innovate Pingtung’s long-term care industry and add new depth to its human resource training, President Tai and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation Long-Term Care Center deputy convener, Shu-Ting Chuang, signed a long-term care industry-academia strategic cooperation alliance memorandum.
At the signing ceremony, held on March 17th, President Tai remarked that “for very many years now, NPUST has been focused on ‘platinum society’ related questions — and not only with respect to the mission of training professional talent. NPUST’s various colleges have been bringing their own areas of expertise to the table, with the Department of Social Work serving has the point of contact, the Agriculture College developing nutritious food products for the elderly, the College of Engineering developing a number of assistive devices for seniors, and the Department of Recreational Sport & Health Promotion developing safe ways for elderly people to exercise. We have also been cooperating with social organizations and now we anticipate serious work to be done on related issues through our future cooperation with the Tzu Chi Foundation.”
Shu-Ting Chuang expressed that “NPUST is a university which is fostering Taiwan’s important professional talent and we are very grateful for this opportunity to cooperate with them. Currently, Tzu Chi Foundation Long-Term Care Center has five main channels to provide internships and acquire experience, including the community care base, day-care center, in-home care, long-term nursing homes care, and administrative management services. Ultimately, we hope that as society ages, we will be able to make our long-term care even better.”
In recent years the Tzu Chi Foundation has begun actively investing itself into the long-term care industry in order to meet the demands that an aging society is presenting to the country. They have been promoting related topics of discussion and have become an integral part of in-home care services in the Pingtung area. In addition to setting up a long-term care hotline for members of the public to access information, they have also set up day-care service centers in Zhutian and Yanpu townships to provide local care to the elderly people living in those areas. This year they will be cooperating with NPUST to hold a “care-service personnel training course” and a “20 hour training course on care for people with dementia”. A separate course will be provided on ways to prevent and delay the loss of abilities among the elderly.
Through cooperation with long-term care organizations, internship opportunities are being offered to students so that they can experience the front lines of the industry. Students from related areas of study are also being encouraged to invest themselves in the long-term care careers and industry-academic cooperation is being developed to help meet growing demand, overcome human resources shortages and revitalize the industry.
