Summary
A NorthTec delegation led by Deputy Chief Executive Dominic Hayward and Director of International Exchange and Cooperation Tan Xueqin visited a Yiwu college on 29 October, meeting vice-president Fan Yao and officials from the International Cooperation and Exchange Office and the School of Foreign Languages and International Trade. Fan outlined the college's distinctive programmes, internationalisation achievements and progress on the Sino-New Zealand joint education project, saying the programme had delivered consistent results over its ten-year history and become a key outcome of cooperation between the two institutions. Hayward gave an overview of NorthTec and its international partnerships, praised the college's vocational education model and student outcomes, and signalled a willingness to deepen cooperation.
The two sides discussed the operation of the joint programme, faculty secondment, and student exchange and study tours, and set directions for the next stage of collaboration. A welcome ceremony for the 2026 intake of the International Business (Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education) major and a scholarship award ceremony followed, attended by scholarship winners from the 2024 and 2025 cohorts and the new students. Fan urged students to draw on Yiwu's position as the world's largest small commodities market to learn internationally, apply their skills in the market and put their knowledge into practice.
Hayward encouraged students to seize international study opportunities. First, second and third prizes were presented to 2024 and 2025 scholarship recipients, with award winner Jin Ziyun and new student representative Chen Xueyan speaking. Tan then fielded questions from students on study, overseas education and career development.
During the visit, the delegation also toured the School of Foreign Languages and International Trade's multilingual cross-border e-commerce livestreaming centre to learn about practical teaching and multilingual talent development.
Commentary
The joint education programme between NorthTec and the Yiwu college has run for a decade, and this visit has further cemented ties in vocational education. For New Zealand SMEs, such partnerships are more than educational exchange — they could serve as an indirect channel into the Chinese market. Yiwu, as a global hub for small commodities, offers a cross-border e-commerce ecosystem and a pool of multilingual talent that together give New Zealand small businesses low-cost resources to test China's e-commerce market.
Students trained under the programme combine international perspectives with hands-on local market skills and could in future act as a bridge for NZ firms expanding in China. On the other hand, education export is itself a significant industry for New Zealand, and such cooperation helps raise the profile of NZ vocational education in China, attracting more Chinese students to New Zealand and indirectly supporting local education services and related spending. NZ SMEs should nonetheless take a measured view: turning education cooperation into direct commercial orders takes time, competition in China is intense, and localised operating capability is key.
Firms would do well to watch practical components such as cross-border e-commerce livestreaming in the programme and explore joint training bases or product-testing channels with the college as a low-cost way to gain market feedback.
Keywords: NorthTec, Sino-foreign cooperative education, International Business major, special scholarship, vocational education, student exchange and study tours, cross-border e-commerce, Yiwu
Photo by NIR HIMI on Unsplash
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