Research on the Cultivation of Composite Talents for Italian Majors in Economy and Trade Based on Industry-University Collaboration ()
1. Introduction
Italy and China signed the Memorandum of Understanding on jointly Advancing the Belt and Road Initiative in March 2019. Despite the obstruction and doubts of traditional Western Allies such as the US, Germany and France. As the first G7 member country to sign this cooperation document with China, the prospect of trade exchanges between China and Italy is good, therefore, the social demand for Italian economic and trade complex talents is becoming more and more urgent.
2. The Cultivation of Italian Talents in Economy and Trade in China
Currently, there are 26 universities offering Italian courses in China. Hundreds of Italian majors graduate every year, and many of them find jobs in foreign trade, e-commerce and sales. However, there is still a shortage of senior compound talents who integrate broad international business knowledge and skilled foreign language skills. Italian, on the other hand, has even less talent in business. The training of Italian talents in China is still dominated by language teaching, and there is a lack of specialization and systematic training in the field of economy and trade. There is a lack of innovation in teaching methods and ideas, as well as a lack of coordination and unity in training objectives. The field of talent training maintains a segmented and closed situation in terms of educational environment, quality of teachers and orientation of training objectives. As a result, most graduates majoring in Italian are faced with the problem that they have excellent language ability, but have a simple knowledge structure and lack a systematic grasp of economic and trade knowledge. They cannot meet the demand for compound talents in the construction of “The Belt and Road”, such as understanding language, international economy and trade, regional politics and culture [2] .
3. The Italian Course for Economy and Trade in Italian Major of Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages
Established in 2010, the Italian major of Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages is the first undergraduate Italian major in Zhejiang Province. Over the years, the school has always been oriented by the society and the market, emphasizing “practice as the main purpose, application as the main purpose”, highlighting the effectiveness of teaching, training high-quality talents who “can learn” Italian and “can use” Italian. The Italian major of Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages is clearly aware of the strong demand for compound talents of Italian in the social development, and has always been committed to the reform of the cultivation goal of Italian talents, so as to connect talents with social positions organically. With this goal in mind, the Italian major offers the excellent course “Italian for Business and Trade”. Since 2012, the teaching experience of “Italian for Business and Trade” has been going on for about 11 years. The number of lecturers is about 200 for students majoring in Italian translation, as well as students majoring in business and cross-border e-commerce. The textbook used for this course is “Italian Economic and Trade Negotiation and Interpretation” compiled by Associate Professor Zhou Lili. Based on economic globalization, it covers the main links of foreign economy and trade, such as negotiation and execution of import and export trade contracts, consultation and agency, international credit, turnkey project, project contracting, bidding and technology transfer. It covers all important fields of today’s international economy, trade and commerce, such as the world economic situation, international trade, international investment, international finance, economic globalization, etc. “Business Italian” not only improves students’ Italian language skills, but also expands their knowledge of international trade and business. This course is based on basic knowledge and skills training. Based on students’ current Italian language skills and relevant economic and trade theories and practical knowledge, students can master the content and language features of Italian economic and trade negotiation and interpretation through classroom learning. The ability to conduct business negotiations directly in Italian is cultivated and improved in scenario simulation practice to broaden and deepen their language and professional knowledge. The course of Italian economy and trade is set up because of the needs of the development of Chinese economy and trade, to adapt more to the needs of Chinese and the world market to adapt more to the development of economic globalization. This course carries on the fine tradition, advocates solid accumulation, has distinct characteristics, occupies the absolute advantage. Because of its unique and effective teaching style, it has obvious characteristics and demonstration role in the similar subjects in colleges and universities in Zhejiang Province. This course plays a very important role in broadening students’ horizons, cultivating international economic and trade talents, and promoting the reform of the teaching method of “Italian+”.
4. Explore the Way of Collaborative Education under the Cooperation with Schools and Enterprises
In addition to language learning, let students participate in the minor courses of economic and trade practice courses, such as small languages + e-commerce, small languages + international trade. while carrying out collaborative education under the cooperation of schools and enterprises, reach a cooperation agreement with foreign trade enterprises, select students to study and practice online during the holiday, widely contact with foreign trade business, use the resources of schools and enterprises to create a relatively good education environment for students, so as to improve the market competitiveness of the Italian language talents of the university [3] . First of all, we should cultivate concept innovation and attach importance to the application and development of talent training. Deepen the reform of the “Italian+” teaching system and expand students’ knowledge of international economy, trade, business and other aspects; Carry out international exchanges, send students to Italy for exchange, study economic and trade courses, and broaden the international exchange platform for students in language, culture, occupation and other qualities. At the same time, through the way of university-enterprise cooperation, students are provided with internship opportunities. The relevant economic and trade theories and practical knowledge will be put into practice, so that students can understand international business knowledge from different aspects and track the latest trends in the field of economic and trade business in today’s world, so as to broaden their vision, enlighten their minds and make achievements, realize the connection and communication between the practical teaching and the needs of the industry and occupation inside and outside the school, and give consideration to the training of industry skills and the cultivation of comprehensive quality. It can be done from the following three aspects:
1) Clearly define the target orientation of talent training.
Highlight the application and development of talent training. The cultivation of Italian composite talents based on the concept of collaborative education between industry and education should be based on a clear and feasible orientation of talent training. At present, the educational concept of industry-university collaborative education is only reflected in the talent training of Italian majors in a relatively small number of colleges and universities in China. However, in these colleges and universities, there are generally vague problems in the orientation of talent training between schools and cooperative enterprises. These problems are mainly manifested in the lack of clear objectives of talent training, the excessively general setting of objectives of economic and trade practice courses, the lack of close connection between teachers’ teaching strategies and teaching schemes and the objectives of professional courses, and the lack of sufficient opportunities for students to practice. There is no effective cooperation between colleges and enterprises, which leads to the difference in the emphasis of the two sides in the actual talent training process, which causes certain obstacles to the improvement of students’ comprehensive language ability and the application ability of economic and trade knowledge.
2) Deepen school-enterprise cooperation, enrich practical teaching forms, and improve practical teaching system.
Most of the domestic Italian majors are committed to cultivating compound and applied foreign language talents with comprehensive application ability of Italian, which requires students to have the corresponding “language knowledge” and strong “language practice ability”, and master the skills in a certain professional field, and the cooperation between colleges and enterprises is an effective way to achieve this goal. However, the teaching mode of school-enterprise cooperation for Italian majors in many colleges and universities is still relatively backward [4] . Many cooperative enterprises only allow students to participate in translation work and lack professional knowledge of the industry. The guidance teachers of cooperative enterprises do not give comprehensive guidance to students in the practice process. In addition, there are often some differences between colleges and cooperative enterprises in the training mode. Colleges pay more attention to the improvement of talents’ ability in listening, speaking, reading and writing Italian, while cooperative enterprises pay more attention to the cultivation of students’ oral expression, application of international business knowledge and adaptability in different environments. It leads to the “sense of disconnection” between theory and practice in the learning process. Therefore, this topic combines advanced educational ideas with my own practical experience, explores more scientific and reasonable practical teaching forms, builds a unified standard of practical teaching curriculum system, and further integrates educational resources of colleges and enterprises. Promote the internationalization of talent training and build the optimal path of school-enterprise cooperation.
3) Innovate teaching methods, update textbook content, and strengthen the construction of high-quality curriculum resources.
At present, the teaching resources of Italian major courses in domestic colleges and universities are relatively scattered, most of which are presented in the form of single subject. The integration degree of Italian major course resources based on the concept of industry-learning collaboration is seriously insufficient, which leads to the difficulty in forming a system for the teaching of teachers and enterprises, as well as the learning and practice of students, and the lack of knowledge coherence. In the actual teaching process of “Italian+” course, the course resources of most colleges are limited to textbooks, which cannot reflect the frontier and effectiveness of knowledge, which has an impact on the improvement of the actual teaching quality [5] . Secondly, in the process of school-enterprise cooperation, the work assigned to students by the cooperative enterprises is too simple, and the guidance to students is only a formality, which makes it difficult for students to get targeted practical training. Finally, it is difficult to achieve a dynamic balance between Italian language teaching and specialized economic and trade teaching, and it is difficult for students to allocate their limited learning time effectively. As a result, they learn too much but not enough to meet the needs of practice. Therefore, under the concept of collaborative education, the construction of high-quality curriculum resources is particularly important. Constantly bring forth the new, innovate teaching methods, fully sort out and classify the existing curriculum teaching resources, and strengthen the development of teaching resources at the same time.
5. Summarize
The cultivation of composite talents for Italian majors in economy and trade should be based on basic knowledge. Through the understanding of different aspects of international business knowledge, the training should track the latest trends in the field of economy and trade in today’s world, enlighten the thinking and broaden the vision. The training of such talents meets the needs of our country to line with the world, integrate into the process of economic globalization, and adapt to the needs of our training senior business people with zero starting point of foreign language high quality, extroversion, with international vision and global vision. It becomes an important window and effective tool for students to observe the world economic situation and grasp the pulse of the times.
Project
This paper is the concluding result of the Industrial and academic cooperative education project of Zhejiang Province in 2021-2022, “An Exploration of the Training Mode of the Italian Professional Economic and Trade Composite Talents Based on Industrial and Academic Cooperation”.