British Education and Training Organisations Visit Brunei and the Philippines

The Training Gateway, supported by DIT and the UK-Asean Business Council (UKABC) led an education and training trade delegation to Brunei and the Philippines in early December. The purpose of the mission was to support Training Gateway members in building business connections, understand the markets, as well as to engage with both governments and key organisations involved in Technical and Vocational Education (TVET).

The first two days of the mission were spent in Brunei where the group first met with the British High Commissioner Richard Lindsay and Allen Lai from the UKABC for a scene setter on the Brunei economic landscape. The day continued with meetings with the Ministry of Education, Darussalam Enterprise and the Brunei Economic Development Board – key stakeholders in growing the Brunei economy.  These meetings gave delegates a good understanding of the Brunei TVET priorities and how to do business in the market.

The following day saw the delegates take part in an extremely well attended UK Education Business Forum that featured a keynote address by the Minister of Education, Dato Haji Hamzah Sulaiman.  The minister told the audience that the key to survival in the 4^th industrial revolution is to become lifelong learners or risk becoming an irrelevant workforce.  He said that the TVET system will have to adapt and innovate constantly as industrial and digital transformations will not only affect the economy but the way people live, work and learn.

The Forum also included a panel discussion with senior figures from Pearson Asia, Brunei Shell Petroleum and the Institute of Brunei Technical Education, moderated by UKABC and short masterclasses by the UK mission participants on their areas of expertise who then took part in 1:1 meetings which lasted for the rest of the day.

The delegation benefited from a similar programme in Manila over the following two days.  Delegates heard from Richard Colley, Director for DIT Philippines and representatives from The Technical Education and Skills Development Agency (TESDA) about the current TVET offer and future skills needs.  Along with some very useful presentations from industry and training representatives in the tourism, construction, culinary and Higher Education sectors. The delegation also had the opportunity to brave Manila’s traffic and visit LPU Culinary Institute and Dusit Hospitality Management College.  Both these site visits proved very useful in getting a hands-on understanding of the facilities used for TVET training and to meet current students.

As in Brunei, the second day in the market provided the delegation with the opportunity to have multiple 1:1 meetings with a wide range of organisations keen to work with UK education and training companies.

Thanks go to teams in the UKABC , the British Embassy in Manila and the British High Commission in Brunei for making this mission such a successful event.

The feedback received from the delegates has been extremely positive:

• Double thumbs up from us at Pearson. You will be getting many recommendations and we will be committing to further events you run in SE Asia
• Superbly organised and such fun meeting fellow folks in the education and training world
• It was a great mission! I’d certainly recommend The Training Gateway to colleagues in the sector.
• Thank you Training Gateway and the team in Brunei, I’m already getting follow ups.
• Many thanks for a great trade mission – it was obviously how much hard work and organising had gone into it – take a bow.

In the news:

• British High Commission Holds First UK Education Business Forum
• Opening of the UK Education Business Forum on Brunei’s National TV News