This file photo shows Rwandan students attending a graduation ceremony at Jinhua University of Vocational Technology in east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 20, 2025. (Jinhua University of Vocational Technology/Handout via Xinhua)

　　SEEDS THAT STAY

　　The longer game is not training one class of students, but enabling African schools to train their own.

　　In Cote d'Ivoire, seven modern vocational schools built by Chinese contractors opened last September. Spanning some 83,000 square meters, they can take about 5,600 students in 15 trades, from machining to auto repair and agro-processing.

　　Moreover, 184 Ivorian teachers and administrators from the schools spent four months in China learning to use and maintain equipment, while 15 school managers studied school management there. Two Chinese vocational institutions now help operate five of the schools.

　　In Kenya, China-supported vocational education cooperation is entering a new phase: 69 institutions will receive equipment for 70 training workshops, and 1,190 instructors and technicians will be trained in both countries.

　　"A trained instructor can train many generations of trainees; (and) a modern workshop can continuously produce skilled workers," said Esther Thaara Muoria, principal secretary of the State Department for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Kenya's Ministry of Education.

　　Wu Jiashun, who heads the central Africa regional center of China First Highway Engineering, put it more plainly: a young person trained today will work for 30 years, and will bring up more young people along the way. "That is how a country learns to build its own roads."