Most people don’t want to sit in the classroom and learn at the weekend. How about if the class was given by a beautiful tea specialist in an elegant tea dress, who swirls by with a kettle, serves fragrant tea, and gives an introduction in a soft and gentle voice? Would you be interested then?

A Paper-Cutting Class is Held at the RTVU Community College

In fact, such classes do exist! Recently, the 2016 tea class was opened at Zhongshan Radio and TV University (RTVU) Community College. Nearly 300 people signed up to study the class, which was originally designed to take only 30 students. In the end, the school had to divide the students into several classes. Make-up and paper-cutting classes were also offered on the same day.

Interesting classes that appeal to everyone

Most of the students in the tea class were adults and most of students in the make-up class were young girls, while the students in the paper-cutting class included both old and young. One of the students, Ms. Liu is from Chaozhou, and she came to attend the tea class with her friend. “I like drinking tea. When I learned from a tea shop that the College was offering this free tea class , I registered immediately.” Director Liu Shuyun of Zhongshan RTVU Community Education Guidance Centre said that the classes were being offered in order to meet a social need. “Every time the class information is released, enrollment will fill up in two or three days, surpassing the scheduled class size. Many of the students have studied courses at the community college before.”

In addition to the three classes launched yesterday, the Community College also offers classes in speech and eloquence, yoga, floriculture, computing, and e-commerce, a total of more than 20 categories. Most of the classes are free, while a few classes charge a little to cover material fees, such as for the floricultural classes. These courses are mostly funded by the government and taught by tutors chosen by the RTVU from a talented teachers’ pool. In response to the government’s advocacy for lifelong education, the RTVU provides the general public with opportunities to learn and offers popular specialized courses. The planned enrollment size for the 25 classes this year was 1,800 students, but it turned out that over 2,900 students registered.

School-enterprise cooperation model brings stronger practical operation

In order to make the courses livelier and more interesting, a school-enterprise cooperation model has been adopted for several of the courses. For instance, the make-up class launched in 2016 was held at the Guan Mei Li Yuan beauty and hair salon. Xiao Li is a factory worker. She said that some of her colleagues had participated in RTVU courses and that it was great that the classes were given in the evening or at the weekend free of charge. She was happy to find out that the make-up class that had no prerequisite requirements. Although she does not work in the beauty and cosmetics industry, she thought it was nice to be able to pick up some skills.

The first class was about how to wear silk scarves, The tutoring team was from Shenzhen Xinsirong Beauty Technology Co., Ltd. The Chairman of the Board of Xinsirong Beauty Technology Sun Haolin said that the teachers had more than 10 years of work experience in the industry. The company cooperated not only with Zhongshan RTVU but also with the Open University of Guangdong, offering part-time junior college courses such as beauty industry management and overall image design. Classes are given in the beauty shop, which is very convenient for the teachers and students given that the venue and tools are already in place.

According to RTVU Director Liu Shuyun, though no strict examinations are taken for the courses, efforts are still made to help the students to learn real knowledge through solid management and service. In order to keep an accurate record of the students’ attendance, a card is handed out to each student. This POS card is then used to record attendance. There are 10 classes for the course, and only those who have attended at least seven classes are qualified to receive a completion certificate. The community college requests that each student is limited to sign up for a maximum of two free public welfare courses; there is no such restriction for enrollment in the chargeable courses.

By Yan Jingzhen
Photo by: Xia Shengquan
Source: Zhongshan Economic Daily