On 20 November, the UNNC - CRRC Yongji Electric "Chuying" International Talent Training Camp was concluded successfully. This executive education programme was designed to leverage the distinctive international education and resources of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), and tailored to meet the overseas operations and industrial transformation needs of CRRC Yongji, to foster multifaceted international talents.

This talent development programme was divided into three main learning phases. The first phase focused on enhancing the participants' business English proficiency and, through UNNC's international experience, broadened their horizons and nurtured their international mindset. The second phase concentrated on strengthening the participants' practical international business skills. Under the guidance of leading faculty teams from Nottingham University Business School China (NUBS China), CRRC Yongji participants engaged in research topics relevant to the company, improving their practical abilities. The third phase was dedicated to reporting results, where project teams presented their research findings based on each group's project work.

It is noteworthy that this talent development programme innovatively combined international business modules with the Nottingham Advantage Award module – NUBS China Consulting Programme. Groups composed of three to four participants from Yongji Electric and two students from NUBS China were formed. Under the leadership of an academic tutor, team members conducted in-depth research on five major business themes specified in the training course—international markets, operations, management, strategy, and digital transformation—bringing new ideas to the company in solving its challenges. This new model not only provided students with the opportunity to explore real business needs but also helped the company to identify students with employment potential, contributing to its international talent pool.

At the graduation ceremony, Mr Yongan Guo, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Deputy General Manager, and Chairman of the Trade Union, CRRC Yongji emphasised in his speech, "The training programme has started the journey of CRRC Yongji Electric Company in collaboration with UNNC to cultivate international talents. UNNC helped Yongji's participants complete their academic plans and achieve teaching goals through a variety of methods combining online and offline methods, centralised and open approaches, and theory and practice. Combined these have yielded fruitful results. The cooperation with UNNC has opened a new pathway for Yongji to create a first-class international talent team."

Professor Martin Liu, Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange at NUBS China, expressed his ardent expectations for the Yongji participants, stating, "Today marks a new beginning, a start of transformation. I hope that you will all hold fast to the original intention of learning: to be driven by curiosity, the desire for knowledge, the pursuit of self-improvement, and the continual search for new knowledge and skills. At the same time, it is crucial to focus on the quality of learning, to deeply understand and master the material at hand. Ultimately, I hope that each one of you will be able to apply what you have learned not only for self-improvement but also to assist others, to contribute to the company, and to serve society at large.”

Mr Pu Qu, Training Manager Supervisor at CRRC Yongji, expressed his gratitude to UNNC for providing high-quality teaching and gave a summary of the programme: "This training programme, undertaken by UNNC for CRRC Yongji’s senior international talent development project, enabled the participants not only to master professional business English knowledge but also to cultivate an international mindset and analytical skills through the international experience of UNNC. The long period of learning was over a year, and during this time, there were challenges such as the impact of the pandemic and the need to balance the programme with work, which made it even more difficult. However, the teachers at UNNC and CRRC Yongji worked together to overcome all difficulties, ensuring that Yongji's participants achieved substantial outcomes. The practice of this cooperation has also laid a solid foundation for CRRC Yongji to cultivate more international talents."

Following that, student representative, Xiaojie Su, delivered a speech in English expressing her experience of the programme. She stated that the training not only honed her English communication skills but also developed her work capacity and team spirit. She learned to integrate her studies with her work, achieving the goal of applying knowledge to practice.

The NUBS China Executive Education Programme is dedicated to exploring talent needs. NUBS China has thus joined forces with CRRC, continuously contributing to its international talent pool as well as cumulatively training nearly 1,000 participants. In addition, the two parties have also cooperated in research and development, industrialisation of electrification technologies and broadband semiconductor motor controllers.