On December 15th, 2022, a graduation ceremony was held at the NPUST Library and Conference Hall for the 40th Overseas Youth Vocational Training School. This year, 14 students from Malaysia received a diploma, personally presented by NPUST president Chin-Lung Chang at the conferral. A results exhibition was also set up on the first floor of the library to showcase the hard work of the students for the guests. For friends and family back on Malaysia who were unable to personally attend, the university’s Office of International Affairs livestreamed the occasion over the internet.
NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang said “when coming to NPUST to study, each student experiences what it is like to leave home, face new cultures and languages, and adapt to pressures from school and life. But time is fleeting, and in the blink of an eye, you are ready to return home again. We hope that all of you will be able to apply the knowledge and skills you have learned in school, that you can apply smart and innovative technology to Malaysia’s traditional agricultural economy, and that you will help develop a new and competitively-enhanced agriculture industry where you live. I wish all the graduates a prosperous future and smooth sailing ahead.”
The class representative, Feng Yuan Lai, said: “when I came to Taiwan, it was the first time I felt an earthquake, the first time I lived without the care of my parents, the first time I ate food with black pepper, and the first time I used a hoe to plow a field. It was the first time for many life experiences. And I knew that, in the begging, we would certainly face a lot of setbacks and trials. But after two years of study and growth, with firm emotions we can encourage one another by saying “don’t forget your first motivation; believe that there will be a rainbow after the storm”—it is a belief that only through your own efforts can the future become better”.
The students enrolled in the “Plant Industry and Precision Tropical Agriculture” program must undergo two years of practical training. In addition to a comprehensive set of theoretical courses, the teachers provide diversified educational guidance, and arranging frequent visits to seedling farms, vegetable gardens, orchards, leisure farms, and ranches. The design is to allow students to fully prove what they have learned by seeing it in practice. They are able to learn professional knowledge and gain rich experience from farmers through on the site exchanges and interaction. As a result, when graduates return home, they are expected to be able to immediately enter the workplace and give full play to the professional knowledge and skills they have acquired.
Many of the students from this year’s graduating class of the Overseas Youth Vocational Training School have chosen to remain at NPUST for further studies, though some will be returning to their overseas residences to work. In either case, as long as they make the effort, they should be able to build many good things on the foundations they have established. In the future, NPUST will continue to cooperate with the Overseas Community Affairs Council to organize Overseas Youth Vocational associate degree programs based on the current needs of industries in overseas Chinese communities. This way, young students will be able to acquire practical knowledge and skills, and contribute their strengths to the benefit of local industries while simultaneously representing their university and creating strong international networks for their alma mater.
