382 entrants of Middle School Vocational Talents Competition receive awards
Mayor Chu today presented awards to 382 outstanding entrants of the 100th academic year’s Middle School Vocational Talents Competition. He said that these students with their unlimited potential will one day become the foundation of the society. Wowprime’s Chairman of Board, Mr. Dai, also attended the award ceremony and expressed his interest in hiring talents.
For this year, Department of Education listed 27 special theme competitions and 11 competitions for vocations such as hotel and restaurant management, food manufacturing, design, agriculture, mechanics, architecture, business management, etc. The competition attracted 1303 students from 77 junior high schools to participate and 382 outstanding participants today received awards at the auditorium of New Taipei City Government.
At the award ceremony, Mayor Chu presented awards to students and took souvenir pictures with them. He praised that students winning the competitions have accomplished an achievement equivalent to winning the Mayor’s Award of Excellence. Because students attending vocational training courses know techniques essential to our daily life, he stressed that their contribution to the society is never to be taken lightly. “Every one of us has a unique talent,” Chu said. “Through preservation and effort, everyone can become successful.”
10 faculty members also received awards at the ceremony today for their excellent contribution to vocational education. Mr. Tsai, Principal of Sanzhi Junior High School as well as one of today’s faculty awardees, said vocational education can help some students who don’t like traditional curriculum arouse their interest in learning again.
“The job of us educational workers is to help children find their own strengths to contribute to the society,” said Mr. Tsai. “These vocational students have shown incredible achievements and mental growth to prove that they are not the ‘non-studying students’ outsiders stereotypically portrayed them as.”
According to Department of Education, many students were first-time winners for awards this year. Some of them even found it difficult to convince themselves that they won their competitions. As the 12-year compulsory education program is bound to start in 2014, Department of Education said that it will continue promote vocational training courses to provide students a variety of learning opportunities.