In August 2016, the Department of Education and Training at the Australian Embassy in Seoul supported the visit to Australia by the Korean Council for University College Education (KCCE), where they signed a new agreement for cooperation with TAFE Directors Australia (TDA).
The purpose of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to identify various areas of collaboration that will be of mutual benefit, including:
i. Facilitating and enhancing academic cooperation between TDA’s member institutes and KCCE’s member schools, especially those which offer higher education qualifications, to explore potential academic partnerships
ii. Providing contact between academic programs, teachers and/or students of the partnering institutions to explore potential modes of collaboration.
Cooperation in vocational education and training (VET) is a major focus in the partnership between the Australian and Korean governments and institutions in both countries. Earlier in 2016, the first Joint Working Group on Technical and Vocational Education and Training was held in Seoul and has led to ongoing projects, for example benchmarking qualifications in both countries to increase two-way mobility in the future.
Mr Eun HWANGBO, Secretary General of KCCE and former government official at the Korean Ministry of Education and Dr Sangjo OH, Director of the Department of Training at KCCE as well as Professor of Dongyang Mirae University attended an MoU signing ceremony with representatives from TDA including Chief Executive Officer Martin Riordan, Melinda Waters, Director, Technical & Tertiary and Jen Bahen, Director of International Education.
TDA and KCCE will focus in particular on exploring opportunities for collaborative delivery of programs; exchange of faculty and students; research collaborations; learning symposia; joint programming and curriculum licencing.
TDA and KCCE staff held a roundtable discussion to exchange ideas on diversifying courses and future opportunities and challenges.
The Department of Education and Training will continue to work in Seoul with the Korean Government and in partnership with organisations such as KCCE and TDA to enhance networks and encourage further collaboration in the VET sector between Australia and Korea.