Ms. Angel Liu, Director General of TECO in Vancouver, and Deputy Director Ms. Suzie Chen with the visiting students from Taiwan

Taiwan’s Ministry of Education promotes many international exchange programs for students to study and do internships overseas. This summer, after a three-year hiatus because of Covid-19, National Formosa University partnered with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) for the tenth time to offer students from Taiwan an intensive air transportation learning-experience program. BCIT is a leading technical and vocational education institutions in Canada, particularly in aviation and aerospace fields.  

There are still ongoing pandemic concerns, so a smaller number of participants—14 students from three different universities in Taiwan—were able to take part in the program that began on July 25. Aviation English is the established language for communication in the international skies, and for the first eight days, the focus was on English aviation terminology and enhancing the students’ professional English proficiency. The rest of the program consisted of practical aircraft maintenance courses, along with a tour of Air Canada’s maintenance facility and aviation exhibition.

An exciting part of the program was a visit to the Pacific Flying Club Flying Center. This is the largest flight training center in Western Canada and it works in collaboration with BCIT to offer airline and flight operation programs. The visiting students had the opportunity to fly a trainer aircraft. This unforgettable, invaluable experience reaffirmed their individual decisions to work in the air transport industry sector, and even the aerospace field.

Angel Liu, the Director General of TECO in Vancouver, and Deputy Director Suzie Chen were invited to attend the closing ceremony of the program on August 19, at which the director general encouraged the students to continue chasing their dreams of a career in aerospace. The Ministry of Education of Taiwan offers three scholarship programs for Taiwanese students to study or do an internship overseas. National Formosa University was able to use these scholarship opportunities to cohost this air transportation learning-experience program, which allowed students to broaden their horizons, as well as advancing their aviation English and other professional skills.