On April 18, 2018, the Pakistan-Luban Workshop EPIP Faculty Training Seminar was inaugurated at Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College. The ceremony was attended by Lv Jingquan, deputy head of the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, Chen Weiming, vice president of the Tianjin Municipal People's Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries, and Irfan Qaiser Shaikh, chairperson of the TEVTA Board, Punjab, Pakistan.

The ceremony opened at 9:30 am. Chu Jianwei, president of Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College in her opening address, congratulated attendees on the inauguration of the Pakistan-Luban Workshop EPIP Faculty Training Seminar which is based on Sino-Pakistani friendship and is to operate under the guidance of the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission with the support of the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government of Tianjin Municipality. She also greeted five faculty members from Punjab province.

A Pakistani faculty representative thanked organizers for hosting this seminar and committed to taking the Luban Workshop EPIP concepts to their students in Pakistan. Chairperson of TEVTA Board Irfan Qaiser Shaikh, Deputy Head of Tianjin Education Commission Chen Weiming and Deputy Head of Tianjin Municipal Education Commission Lv Jingquan also addressed the ceremony.

The ceremony closed with a chorus of Auld Lang Syne by the guests and international students from Pakistan, and with wishes for a successful faculty program, a great partnership with Luban Workshop, and a long-lasting Sino-Pakistani friendship.

Organized jointly by Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College and the Pakistan TEVTA, the Pakistan-Luban Workshop is the fifth Luban Workshop globally, after Thailand, India, the UK, and Indonesia. It will train faculty and cultivate professionals in mechatronics to serve technical talent development under the Road and Belt initiative. The EPIP Faculty Training Seminar is a key component of the workshop. EPIP refers to Engineering Practice Innovation Project, a leading educational concept with Chinese characteristics that has been advocated by the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission for years. Following the goal of cultivating engineering and technical capacities in students, EPIP explores transverse connectivity between vocational education and regular education to realize innovation-driven integration in teaching resources, modes, faculty building, and curriculum reform outcomes as a way of sustaining students' diversified development.

Upon completion of the program in five weeks, the Pakistani faculty will return home and work with the Chinese faculty for the Luban Workshop that is anticipated to open in the first half of 2018. The Luban Workshop is dedicated to supporting China's capacity and service output to sustain national development, supporting globalization development of vocational education in Tianjin and driving educational exchanges, and supporting higher quality in faculty and disciplinary development of vocational colleges. Follow-up workshops in Cambodia and Africa are under preparation.