Cardiff backs Taith international learning exchange programme

Cardiff University is hosting the Programme Executive delivering Welsh Government’s new international learning exchange programme, Taith, which has the power to help students carve out new career pathways.

Taith (‘journey’) aims to help 15,000 students and staff from Wales travel overseas, and for 10,000 in turn to work or study in Wales. It replaces the Erasmus+ programme the UK Government left after Brexit. For Welsh education providers and their international partners, Taith provides significant opportunities over and above the Turing scheme, which they can also continue to access.

Education Minister Jeremy Miles has said: “Taith will offer life-changing opportunities to travel and to learn for all learners and staff in every part of Wales and in every type of education. And it will also bring learners and educators from around the world to Wales to enrich university campuses and bring cultural influences to our classrooms.”

Leaders at Cardiff University believe Taith, which runs to 2026 with £65m of Welsh Government funding, has the potential to help all students gain international and intercultural experiences that will equip them with the skills for a whole range of careers that respond to the rapidly changing world in which we live.

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Professor Claire Gorrara, Dean for Research and Innovation for Cardiff’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, believes Taith has huge potential to support Cardiff’s students to engage with the multilingual workplaces of the now and the future.

‘By offering excellent opportunities to travel, work and study abroad, Taith enables students to gain that vital exposure to different cultures, languages and ways of living that deliver the global mindset so central to the University experience.’

Professor Omer Rana, College Dean of International for Physical Sciences and Engineering, says Taith offers a great opportunity to make what can seem unexpected connections, for example arts and humanities students partnering with tech/entrepreneurship opportunities in physical sciences and engineering.

“Students come to Computer Science from a variety of backgrounds -- especially via our conversion course and the National Software Academy. The route to tech startups is very broad. The late Apple leader Steve Jobs was a Liberal Arts student, who said ‘technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, makes our hearts sing… in these post-PC devices.’ [1] As a university with a strong Arts and Humanities College, it’s important to connect all opportunities and benefits international exchanges can bring.”

The scheme, chaired by former Education Minister and Distinguished Visiting Fellow Kirsty Williams, will cover higher education, adult education, further and vocational education, and schools, as well as youth work.

The programme will help deliver the Welsh Government’s priorities in transforming international engagement and developing the best in international education and youth sectors through sustainable actions that benefit current and future generations in Wales.

Reference:

[1] Steve Jobs: “Technology Alone Is Not Enough” -- By Jonah Lehrer

New Yorker Magazine, October 7, 2011

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/steve-jobs-technology-alone-is-not-enough