At a recent vocational skills exhibition in Baoding, Hebei province, Zhou Ziming showcased a fully automatic coffee machine that has two buttons — one marked "Americano" and the other "latte". After users select one, a robotic arm with a dexterous hand will hold a cup and move it to the outlet to receive the prepared coffee.

"I wrote the program myself. If I want to further improve it, such as adding sugar or cream, I can write another program and add another robotic arm," the 19-year-old mechatronics engineer said.

He credits the capabilities he has obtained to his learning experience at Baoding Technician College's China-Germany Vocational Education Class, which he joined in 2019.

It is a cooperative project between the Baoding-based college and industrial associations in Germany to nurture vocational talent.

Zhou said he first learned about electrical work and metalworking, the foundation for mechatronics.

"Four years ago, I couldn't imagine being able to write my own program to automate the operation of an electronic robotic arm," he said.

In June, some Sino-German joint ventures and domestic high-tech companies visited the school to recruit employees.

Zhou found the perfect option for himself — Beijing-based Agile Robots. It is an intelligent robot enterprise with headquarters in both Beijing and Munich, Germany, that is committed to promoting innovation in robot technology, and expanding the promotion and application of robots in more fields.

Next month, Zhou and 12 classmates will go to the headquarters in Munich for a practice session in production line installation and testing.

"The cooperation mode will be expanded to other countries that participate in the Belt and Road Initiative," said Wang Zhi, a teacher at the Baoding-based college.

Wang said the college will carry out similar cooperation in nurturing vocational talent with Hungary, as a China-Hungary vocational education international cooperation program was discussed during a forum on Wednesday.

The Belt and Road International Forum on Vocational Education that kicked off in Baoding on Wednesday is a supporting event of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on people-to-people connectivity.

The two-day vocational education forum attracted more than 500 people from home and abroad.

"International cooperation and exchange in education is an important force for people-to-people exchanges and the progress of human civilization," Hao Mingjin, chairman of the China Vocational Education Association, the forum's major organizer, said during the opening ceremony.

A total of 158 vocational colleges have established schools overseas, contributing to the training of 267,000 talented workers for Belt and Road countries, according to the association.

"It is necessary to establish a new mechanism for vocational education cooperation among Belt and Road countries, so as to form a long-term, stable and sustainable cooperative development model," Hao said.

More pragmatic vocational education cooperation should be conducted to promote high-quality development of vocational education in the countries, he added.