2019年是愛中建交40周年，今天我們會(huì)采訪百年職校創(chuàng)始人、理事長(zhǎng)姚莉女士，聽她講述她本人以及百年職校與愛爾蘭的故事。

This year 2019 is the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Ireland, today we will interview Madame Yao Li, the founder and president of Bai Nian Vocational School, and listen to her talk about the story between Ireland ,BNVS and herself.

在過去的40年里，中國(guó)經(jīng)歷了巨大的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)和城市化。許多人從快速增長(zhǎng)中受益。與此同時(shí)，也面臨著一些挑戰(zhàn)，因?yàn)榭焖俚某鞘谢挂恍┤嗽诮逃途蜆I(yè)方面落在了后面。

上世紀(jì)90年代末，在一家國(guó)有外貿(mào)公司工作多年后，我決定投身服務(wù)業(yè)，在那里我有機(jī)會(huì)與北京的許多農(nóng)民工一起工作。正是在這段時(shí)間里，我發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些問題—例如，這些農(nóng)民工家庭沒有享受到城市的福利待遇，尤其缺乏接受學(xué)校教育的途徑。這給了我一個(gè)想法，為這些進(jìn)城的年輕人創(chuàng)建一所學(xué)校，為他們提供學(xué)習(xí)專業(yè)技能的機(jī)會(huì)，以便在城市中站穩(wěn)腳跟。我和我的朋友們認(rèn)為職業(yè)教育是實(shí)現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)的最佳途徑，因此我們?cè)?004年開始準(zhǔn)備，并在2005年正式開辦了百年職校。從那時(shí)起，我們已經(jīng)在中國(guó)建立了10個(gè)分校。2014年，我們?cè)诎哺缋_設(shè)了第一家海外分校。截至今天，已有6800多名學(xué)生在百年職校接受了職業(yè)教育。

In the past 40 years, China has experienced huge economic growth and urbanization. Many people have benefited from the fast growth. At the same time, we are also facing a number of challenges too as the fast urbanization has left some people behind without equal opportunities to education and employment.

In the late 1990s, having worked in a state-own international trading company for a number of years, I decided to dive myself into the service industry where I had the chance of working together with many migrant workers in Beijing. It was during this time that I found some problems – for example, the families of these migrant workers were not granted with the access to the city’s welfare system especially to school education. This gave me the idea of creating a school for migrant young people in the city that provides them with opportunities to learn a professional skill in order to establish themselves in the city. My friends and I believed that vocational education was the best way to achieve this goal and thus began our preparation in 2004 and BN Vocational School (BNVS) was officially opened in 2005. Since then, we have expanded into a network of 10 campuses across China. In 2014, we opened our first overseas campus in Angola. As of today, over 6,800 students have received vocational education at BNVS.

在2005年籌備學(xué)校開學(xué)的過程中，我向愛爾蘭的老朋友邁克爾·加維(Michael Garvey)請(qǐng)教如何管理一所具有國(guó)際標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的學(xué)校。在Michael的幫助下，我參觀了愛爾蘭的一些職業(yè)教育機(jī)構(gòu)，在那里我從FAS（愛爾蘭政府的職業(yè)教育管理機(jī)構(gòu)）的官員那里學(xué)到了很多關(guān)于職業(yè)培訓(xùn)的重要概念。那次愛爾蘭之行讓我受益匪淺，它增強(qiáng)了我投身于過去沒做過的教育事業(yè)的信心。

學(xué)校開學(xué)后，我們與愛爾蘭的友誼繼續(xù)著。當(dāng)時(shí)的大使戴克瀾先生訪問了BNVS，愛爾蘭大使館通過愛爾蘭援助項(xiàng)目慷慨資助了BNVS的英語(yǔ)教學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)室。在我們搬進(jìn)新校區(qū)之前的五年多里，我們的學(xué)生一直使用這個(gè)語(yǔ)音室學(xué)習(xí)。一些來(lái)自愛爾蘭的年輕志愿者積極參與百年職校的活動(dòng)：例如，麥德森(Michael Pearson)是BNVS的英語(yǔ)老師，著名電視節(jié)目主持人董默涵(Risteard Deorian)不僅參與教學(xué)還連續(xù)15年幫助BNVS主持年度募捐活動(dòng)。還有，前任愛爾蘭大使康寶樂(Paul Kavanagh)的夫人羅斯瑪麗(Rosemary Kavanagh)在北京逗留期間，兩年來(lái)每周都在學(xué)校教英語(yǔ)。

我們感到非常幸運(yùn)的是，同愛爾蘭的這種友誼已經(jīng)發(fā)展了15年，并將繼續(xù)發(fā)展下去。在過去15年里，我們接待了每一位愛爾蘭大使和許多政府高級(jí)官員的訪問。所有的學(xué)生和畢業(yè)生都有機(jī)會(huì)學(xué)習(xí)和了解愛爾蘭的歷史和文化。最近我們剛剛收到愛爾蘭大使館的最新捐贈(zèng)——百年職校武漢校區(qū)擁有了一個(gè)配有30臺(tái)全新電腦的IT學(xué)習(xí)中心，李修文大使親切地邀請(qǐng)我們的團(tuán)隊(duì)來(lái)到大使館，他在那里宣布了這個(gè)好消息。

During the preparation for the school opening in 2005, I reached out to Michael Garvey, a long-time friend from Ireland for advices of how to run a school with international standards. With Michael’s help, I visited a number of vocational education institutes in Ireland where I learnt many great concepts about professional training from officials in the FAS.  I was benefited greatly from that trip to Ireland which boosted my confidence to devote into something that I had no experience of in the past.

Our friendship with Ireland continued after the School was opened. Ambassador Declan Kelleher visited BNVS and the Embassy of Ireland generously sponsored the English Learning Lab at BNVS through the Irish Aid Project. The English Lab was very well used by our students for over five years until we moved into a new campus. We also had a number of young volunteers from Ireland. For example, Michael Pearson was the English teacher at BNVS and Risteard Deorian, popular TV host helped with BNVS’s annual fund raising even for 15 consecutive years. The wife of the Irish Ambassador Paul Kavanagh, Rosemary Kavanagh was teaching English every week at school for two years during her stay in Beijing.

We feel very fortunate and blessed that this friendship with Ireland has blossomed for 15 years, which will continue to grow. Over the past 15 years, we have received the visits from every Irish ambassador and high-ranking government officials. All our students and graduates had the opportunity to learn and to be engaged in the history and culture of Ireland. We are very excited to have received our newest donation from the Irish Embassy – an IT learning center with 30 brand new computers at our Wuhan campus and Ambassador O’Leary kindly invited our team to the Embassy where he announced the good news.

美好的回憶太多了!例如，愛爾蘭前總統(tǒng)瑪麗·麥卡利斯2010年對(duì)中國(guó)進(jìn)行國(guó)事訪問期間訪問了BNVS，我們感到非常榮幸。但我還想說(shuō)的最特別的時(shí)刻是2010年圣帕特里克節(jié)那天，我們百年愛心合唱團(tuán)的學(xué)生在北京市中心的王府井大街上向觀眾和行人演唱愛爾蘭歌曲，參加中國(guó)北京首次舉辦的圣帕特里克節(jié)巡游。孩子們把臉涂成綠色和橙色，與戴克瀾大使一起走在巡游隊(duì)伍中。他們快樂地歡呼著。這是一個(gè)象征著中愛人民友誼的時(shí)刻，我永遠(yuǎn)會(huì)記住。

There were so many beautiful memories!  For example, we were surprised and honored that the former Irish President, Mary McAleese, visited BNVS during her state visit to China in 2010. I would say that the most special moment was when our students in the BN Charity Choir performed Irish songs in the city center of Beijing on St. Patrick’s Day in 2010. It was also the first time that the St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in China. Our students performed “Sally Garden” to guests, audiences and pedestrians and walked alongside with Ambassador Kelleher in the parade. All of them had their faces colored in green and orange paint. They cheered with joy and laughter. It was a big and beautiful moment representing the friendship between China and Ireland which we’ll always remember.

我發(fā)現(xiàn)中國(guó)人和愛爾蘭人在很多事情上有相同的價(jià)值觀，比如家庭和教育。我記得在愛爾蘭訪問過一所學(xué)校，他們?yōu)榱斯膭?lì)退學(xué)的學(xué)生繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)，按小時(shí)付費(fèi)給來(lái)上課的學(xué)生。那所學(xué)校的校長(zhǎng)告訴我，他們相信教育是他們國(guó)家的未來(lái)，這和我們?cè)谥袊?guó)的價(jià)值觀是一樣的。

愛爾蘭也是一個(gè)非常美麗的國(guó)家，有令人驚嘆的秀麗風(fēng)景，友好的人民和令人驚嘆的美好文化，如愛爾蘭的音樂和其偉大的文學(xué)。

I found the people of China and Ireland share the same values on many things, such as family and education. I remember visiting a school in Ireland where they paid fees for students who had quit just to encourage them to continue learning. The headmaster at that school told me that they believed education was the future to their county and it is the same value that we shared in China. 

Ireland is also a very beautiful country with breathtaking scenery, friendly people and amazing culture such as the Irish music and great literature.

你對(duì)愛爾蘭和百年職校未來(lái)的合作有什么計(jì)劃?

Do you have any plans for future cooperation of Ireland and BNVS?

是的，百年職校正在尋求與愛爾蘭的學(xué)校和公司進(jìn)行更多更深入的合作，以專業(yè)培訓(xùn)為重點(diǎn)，比如老年人護(hù)理。為了應(yīng)對(duì)中國(guó)老齡化社會(huì)的挑戰(zhàn)，我們?cè)趦赡昵伴_設(shè)了養(yǎng)老護(hù)理課程。愛爾蘭在養(yǎng)老護(hù)理行業(yè)有著豐富的經(jīng)驗(yàn)和發(fā)展，我們相信在學(xué)生和教師培訓(xùn)方面會(huì)有很多合作的機(jī)會(huì)。

Yes, BNVS is looking for more and deeper cooperation with Irish schools and companies with a focus of professional trainings, such as senior care. In response to the challenges of an aging society in China, we launched a senior care course two years ago. While Ireland is highly experienced and developed in the senior care industry, we believe that there will be many opportunities for cooperation in terms of student and teacher trainings.

愛爾蘭和中國(guó)建交40周年以來(lái)，兩國(guó)文化方面的交流和訪問向來(lái)十分友好， 兩國(guó)人民通過相互對(duì)話，互相學(xué)習(xí)，我們會(huì)在40故事中，繼續(xù)為您講述屬于兩國(guó)的友誼故事。

40 years long,  cultural exchanges and visits between Ireland and China have always been very friendly. People from two countries can learn from each other through talks and visits, We will continue to tell you stories of the friendship between the our two countries.