The China Executive Leadership Programs (CELP), an initiative within the office of Global Education and Training (GET) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recently signed a new 5-year cooperation agreement with the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) in China.
The signing took place in Beijing in March 2016 and was attended by GET Director Dr. Matt Rosenstein and China Training Program Associate Mr. Nianhua Wang, with lead representation of SAFEA by Deputy Director of the International Training Department Mr. Deng Yonghui. The agreement renews CELP’s designation through 2021 as an official Overseas Training Program recognized by the government of the People’s Republic of China.
As the administrative agency of the state council of the Chinese government, SAFEA approves institutions worldwide for offering training programs financed by Chinese state funds to Chinese business, education, and government officials. CELP has provided training programs to executives from China every year since 1993, when the first contracts between the University of Illinois and SAFEA were established with the facilitation of Nianhua Wang, who received an MSBA degree from the University of Illinois in 1992.
In 1999, CELP was selected to be one of the first 17 official China Overseas Training Centers globally by SAFEA because of its reputation for high-quality training programs, years of training experience, consistency and reliability, and the distinguishing features of expertise at the University of Illinois.
Since its first SAFEA-sponsored training programs 23 years ago, CELP has hosted over 300 delegations on the UIUC campus. More than 6,000 senior managers and officials from Chinese businesses, government agencies, and academic institutions have participated in programs of varying types. In addition to its training of high-level executives, since 2011 CELP has expanded its offerings to include special programs for students from Chinese top-ranked universities.
CELP has partnered with over 60 different institutions from China, including some of the world’s largest and most successful banks and insurance corporations, multinational companies on the Global Fortune 500 list, a range of government ministries, and top-ranked universities. In providing a gateway to the breadth of academic expertise at UIUC, CELP’s programs have covered a wide variety of topics in fields such as business, law, science, engineering, education, and more.
Even as the GET office looks to broaden its appeal to global clientele from diverse countries, CELP will remain an important initiative connecting the people of China to the United States, and Chinese leaders past, present, and future to the University of Illinois.