Shandong, China, May 2025 – The CEDF-DELL “Upskilling Future Workforce for the Digital Economy” 2025 Project Conference was successfully held in Liaocheng, Shandong Province, China. 

The conference was organised by the National Centre for Educational Technology (NCET) and chaired by Mr. Zhao Lin, Director of the Vocational Education Teaching Resources Division at NCET. The event brought together project experts and coordinators, leaders from educational technology centres, teacher representatives from Shandong and Liaoning provinces, and members of the project implementation team from ICDL China. 

The conference began with welcome remarks delivered by Mr. Xu Longhai, Director of the Shandong Center for Educational Technology. 

A keynote presentation was delivered by Professor Wei Min, former Deputy Director of the Ministry of Education’s Information Technology Teaching Committee for Vocational Colleges. His address, titled “Enhancing Digital Literacy and Competence among Vocational College Leaders”, offered valuable insights and guidance to the attending educators. 

In addition, Professor Yang Yanjun from Nanchang University gave a virtual presentation on “Digital Transformation of Education and the Construction of a New Digital Education Ecosystem”. His talk shed light on the pivotal role of digital literacy in the development of vocational education and provided strategic direction for the project. 

During the discussion sessions, teacher representatives actively engaged in sharing their experiences in implementing ICDL modules within their institutions. They discussed project progress, addressed challenges, and exchanged best practices and success stories, fostering meaningful peer learning and collaboration. The conference also outlined the project’s upcoming activities for the year, including student assessments, and project submissions. 

In conclusion, the 2025 project marks another milestone in our consistent effort to advancing vocational education and digital literacy in China. Through the collaboration between CEDF, Dell Technologies, NCET, and ICDL, the project aims to create valuable learning opportunities, upskill the future workforce, and provide ICDL internationally recognised digital skills certifications to students across China.