Injecting energy! Ministry of Education and industry associations facilitate industry-academia matchmaking

(Taiwan TB News Network / Senior Reporter Liu Zhicheng) To strengthen the close connection between technical and vocational colleges and industry, the Ministry of Education, through regional industry-academia cooperation centers, has built a platform mechanism for exchange with various industry associations, facilitating industry-academia matchmaking to jointly cultivate talent and also assisting local industry transformation and upgrading.

The six Ministry of Education regional industry-academia cooperation centers currently have established links with 84 associations across 19 industry sectors. Regarding the Iron and Steel Association's point that the steel industry is the foundation for the sustainable development of our country's industries, with a national workforce of over 40,000 people, changes in industrial development and the social environment have meant that past industrial prosperity no longer exists, and the industry further faces the difficulties and impacts of a talent shortage and technological transformation and upgrading. To assist the Iron and Steel Association in cultivating talent, the regional industry-academia cooperation centers launched multiple industry-academia cooperation measures in the 105th academic year, using the R&D energy of technical and vocational colleges to cooperate with industry in developing key technologies and cultivating talent, providing assistance in many aspects including technological upgrading, talent cultivation and industry marketing, and supporting the sustainable development of the steel industry through concrete actions and measures.

Introducing Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing technology is one of the effective solutions to alleviate the labor shortage in the steel industry. The Ministry of Education regional industry-academia cooperation center - National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences - cooperated with China Steel Corporation to establish the "Forging and Rolling Engineering Research Center," and sought special project funding subsidies from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Science and Technology to assist in developing technologies and products.

Through the six regional industry-academia cooperation centers leading future workplace newcomers to visit the steel industry and holding related forums, the aim is to strive to assist the steel industry in industrial transformation and image marketing, raise the public's attention to basic industries, and at the same time give the general public a deeper understanding of and sense of identification with the steel industry, as well as increase young people's willingness to enter the industry, injecting the vitality and energy of sustainable development into the steel industry.