Korea to explore educational opportunities in Rockhampton

Published on 20 October 2016

As a Region that boasts one of Queensland’s most comprehensive educational industries, it’s no surprise that Rockhampton Regional Council wants to show it to the rest of the world, and in particular Korea.

For the last five years, the Korean Ministry of Education has been funding the Global Internship Program to send year 12 students of specialised vocational high schools overseas for vocational training and work experience.

Students have previously been sent to Sydney or Brisbane, and now Council is vying for a spot on next year’s program as a leader in agricultural training.

Rockhampton Region Mayor Margaret Strelow said Council’s Economic Development team has invited a delegation of elite Korean government officials from Chungcheongnamedo Office of Education, Korean Ministry of Education to visit Rockhampton next week.

“We’re excited by this new opportunity to welcome a Korean delegation to our Region that will no doubt impress them with our world class educational facilities,” Mayor Strelow said

“Their focus is to develop new programs for the agriculture sector in particular, and this is where we have a competitive advantage over the capital cities.”

Council’s Senior Trade and Investment Executive, Young Beamish, said this is the first attempt by the Korean Government to consider agriculture programs and a region other than Australia’s metropolitan city areas as part of their student vocational training initiative.

“Up until now, commercial cookery, childcare, hairdressing and automotive industries, for example, have been recognised as the most common training fields,” Ms Beamish said.

“This is just the beginning of international engagement at Council, and a realisation of Economic Development.

“International education has been Queensland’s third largest export industry while Korea has been the third largest source country to the state and Australia.”

During their visit to Rockhampton, the delegation will also meet with CQUniversity, tour Belmont Station and the Rockhampton Airport after expressing keen interest in aviation training.

The student exchange commences in September every year for 12 weeks with financial support of approximately $15,000 provided from the Korean Government to each student for language and vocational gap training.

The Chungcheongnamdo Office manages 1269 schools and 320,000 students in the region