Vocationalising China’s education cooperation with Africa: from Confucius Institutes to Luban Workshops

This study examines the evolution of China's education cooperation with Africa through a comparative analysis of two flagship initiatives: the Confucius Institute (CI) and the Luban Workshop (LW), and identifies a recent vocationalisation trend. It compares their objectives and operations, traces the historical evolution of cooperation and analyses the drivers of vocationalisation. Drawing on longitudinal qualitative fieldwork (2015-2025) across six African countries and policy and documentary analysis, the study finds that although the CI and LW differ in sectoral focus, they share a joint-venture institutional model and increasingly converge through “Chinese + TVET” programming. It identifies three phases of China-Africa education cooperation: internationalisation, institutionalisation and vocationalisation. To account for this shift, the article develops the concept of developmental pragmatism, arguing that vocationalisation reflects pragmatic responses to China's economic and geopolitical pressures while also pursuing longer-term developmental outcomes through joint-venture governance and institutional embedding within host-country education systems. 本文通过比较分析孔子学院与鲁班工坊这两个旗舰项目，探讨中国与非洲教育合作的演变，并识别出近年来出现的职业化转向。文章比较两者的目标与运行机制，梳理中非教育合作的历史演变，并分析推动职业化转向的主要因素。基于2015–2025年在六个非洲国家开展的纵向质性田野调查，并结合政策和文献分析，研究发现：尽管孔子学院和鲁班工坊在领域侧重点上有所不同，但二者均采用合作共建的制度模式，并通过“中文+职业教育”的项目设计呈现日益融合的趋势。文章将中非教育合作概括为国际化、制度化和职业化三个阶段。为解释这一转变，文章提出“发展性务实主义”概念，认为职业化转向既是对中国经济与地缘政治压力的务实回应，也通过合作治理机制和嵌入东道国教育体系追求更长期的发展性成果。