From April 16th to 17th, with the lead of the delegation of Hubei Provincial Foreign Experts Affairs Bureau, 4 representatives of our university participated in the 14th China International Elites Exchange Conference jointly hosted by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs P.R.China and the Peoples Municipal Government of Shenzhen. The representatives were our vice president, Prof. Zhang Yingjiang, representatives, the director of our Department of International Relations, Ms. Long Yan, the deputy director of our Department of Human Resources, Mr. Zheng Qiongbing and the project manager of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (hereafter referred to as 'TEFL') in the Department of International Relations, Mr. Chen Han.

The two-day conference was one of the grand national event involved in recruiting and managing resources of domestic and international elites and excellent programs. It consisted of various forms of communication activities, including exhibitions, job fairs, forums, seminars, etc. More than 4,500 international organizations, training agencies, higher education institutes, job intermediaries and technology firms from 73 countries and regions.

On April 16th, our representatives participated in the international exhibitions. A high point of their visit was to build contacts with foreign organizations, higher education institutes, foundations, human resources companies, head-hunting companies, etc. Therefore the foundation could be laid for our university’s future personnel recruitment in education and scientific research, establishment for intercollegiate cooperation programs and student exchange programs, as well as recruitment for foreign teachers.

On April 17th, our representatives participated in the First TEFL Vocational Training Seminars for the teachers teaching English, which was hosted by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs P.R.China. The speech given by our representatives was highly regarded by the leaders from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs P.R.China and other participants.

It is known that our university has successfully acquired authorization of establishing TEFL vocational training base oriented to foreign language teachers. After three-month preparation, the training base will run the first course in the end of May in 2016.