WITH the end in view of producing more skilled and job-ready students, Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna announced that the Universidad de Manila (UdM) signed an ‘Agreement of Sisterhood Universities Relationship Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)’ with the Guangzhou Electromechanical Technician College (GETC).
Under the MOU, both the UdM and GETC stated that they ‘stand ready to jointly explore the possibility of cooperation of jointly-running schools to deliver more professional and skilled talents for Guangzhou and Manila’.
Lacuna said anything that would benefit the students of the city-run universities of Manila is most welcome.
The Manila delegation to the signing ceremony was led by Manila City Administrator Bernie Ang and UdM President Ma. Felma Carlos-Tria who signed the MOU along with GETC Dean Wu Hongdong. The signing was done right at the GETC and witnessed by officials from Manila and Guangzhou, among them Guangzhou Consul-General Marshall Louis M. Alferez and Vice Consul April Mejia, Manila Chinatown Development Council Executive Director Willord Chua, Councilor Numero Lim, UdM’s Director for Quality Assurance, Accreditation and External Linkages Rejan Tadeo and Vice President for Comptrollership Jeffrey Litan, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangzhou GETC Wang Zuogen and Hongzhe Tu, deputy director-general of Foreign Affairs Office of Guangzhou China, among others.
Ang, who worked for the said MOU to be realized sooner than expected, said that the agreement recognizes that the friendly exchanges and cooperation in the field of education between UdM and GETC will have an important and far-reaching impact on the promotion of mutual understanding between the two universities.
The UdM and GETC expressed belief that education is not limited to the cultivation of students to achieve excellent academic results, acknowledging that the mission of universities and colleges is to deliver more professional and technical talents to society.
Toward this end, he said that both universities intend to establish the sisterhood relationship by signing the MOU, whose purpose is to provide opportunities for exchanges and cooperation between them on the basis of equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit.
Too, Ang said that both parties would be ready to actively promote exchanges and cooperation at various levels and in various forms; conduct extensive exchanges on the practice and academic research on the training of technical skills personnel, faculty exchanges and visits, teaching management, skills competition, talent evaluation and other aspects of the mechanical industry.
“Both parties also stand ready to provide and exchange educational information with each other; build exchange and mutual learning platforms for cooperation in areas of efficient management of skill training and industrial productive services; jointly develop training courses suitable for social development for industry practitioners and jointly improve the ability of practitioners to adapt to new technologies and master cutting-edge technologies, “Ang added.
Ang also recounted that when he authored City Ordinance 7885 that created the UdM way back when he was a City Councilor representing the third district of Manila, the university’s real intended purpose at that time was to become a technical-vocational school that would produce the best in the said field, adding that the concept even came ahead of the TESDA.
The signing ceremony, which was presided over by college vice president Zhan Yiquan, ended with the two parties exchanging mementos and taking posterity shots.
