Poly-Monde team members taking part in the online briefing session on April 16

The University of Montreal is a leading applied-research university and Polytechnique Montréal—the French name of the School of Engineering there—is one of the top engineering schools in Canada. Every year since 1990 it has selected 24 outstanding future engineers to form a Poly-Monde team. The students in the team choose companies and institutions in Canada and abroad to visit and interact with to learn about the challenges they face, and opportunities for collaboration in the associated industry sectors.

A Poly-Monde team visited Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore in 2008, and Taiwan and Singapore were selected once again this year. The team decided to focus on three key areas: financial services, transport and mobility, and biotechnologies (in the food, energy, and health sectors). The focus is on best practices of industries and businesses in the international market, with transversal themes of Sustainable Development, Artificial Intelligence, and Resilience in Times of Crisis.

The Poly-Monde 2021 industrial mission, scheduled to take place from May 10 to May 21, would involve several Taiwan companies attending conventions and sharing information with the students, so the team reached out to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada (TECO) and requested a briefing on Taiwan beforehand.

The Education Division of TECO in Canada assisted by hosting an hour-long online briefing session with the team on April 16. Deputy Representative, Christine Tsai, welcomed everyone and then TECO staff gave comprehensive introductions to different aspects of Taiwan—including geopolitics, trade between Canada and Taiwan, research innovation, studying in Taiwan, the 2030 Bilingual Nation policy, and TEEP (the Taiwan Experience Education Program). The meeting ended with a Q&A session, with questions mainly about geopolitics, and the Contact Taiwan website which lists career opportunities.

The briefing session was very helpful and many team members also registered for the Talent Development and Inclusive Growth: Regional Industry-Academia Collaboration for Skill Training, Internship, Jobs and Women APEC–TVET Workshop on May 7, hosted by the Ministry of Education.

The subsequent 2021 Poly-Monde industrial mission and the team’s experience with companies and institutions in Taiwan was very successful. The results of their research studies of economic and technological benchmarking in key industrial sectors in Canada and abroad will be published as part of an annual report. In addition, the Education Division of TECO in Canada and Polytechnique Montréal look forward to future collaboration.