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Taking Learning Beyond Borders
A three-way collaboration between CAE, the You Rong Ji Education Foundation and Tunghai University receives a Silver Award at the 2026 Asia-Pacific and Taiwan Sustainability Action Awards
The College of Allied Educators (CAE) has long been committed to cross-cultural education and to supporting learners from diverse backgrounds. Since 2025, CAE has contributed to the development of the Columbus Overseas Learning Programme, sharing its experience in overseas education and cross-cultural learning through strategic exchange, and offering perspectives, drawn from its work with a diverse student body, on how overseas learning should be designed. This helped shape the programme into a cross-border learning experience rather than simply an overseas study visit.
The Learning Through Play, Inclusive Action initiative, of which the programme forms part, has been awarded the Silver Award for SDG 4: Quality Education at the 2026 Asia-Pacific and Taiwan Sustainability Action Awards. Led jointly by the You Rong Ji Education Foundation and Tunghai University, the initiative was recognised for its development and its overseas learning outcomes, with related coverage acknowledging and thanking CAE for its support and participation in the Columbus Overseas Learning Programme.
The award-winning initiative began with community and rural education and has gradually extended into technology-enabled learning and overseas learning opportunities, with a particular focus on creating more opportunities for children in less well-resourced areas to engage with the world, broaden their horizons and explore their futures.
Building Connections Across Borders
One significant part of this development is the Columbus Overseas Learning Programme, which sets out to broaden young learners’ horizons through overseas and cross-cultural experience, connecting learning with the wider world. CAE has taken part in the development of this initiative through strategic exchange and by sharing its experience in overseas education and cross-cultural learning.
This relationship was not built through a single event. It has developed step by step through continuing dialogue.
On 25 June 2025, representatives of the You Rong Ji Education Foundation and Tunghai University visited CAE in Singapore and met CAE Managing Director James Zhang to exchange views on overseas education and cross-border learning.
As a private education institution (PEI) bringing together disciplines that include business administration, financial technology and counselling psychology, CAE draws on a student body from many countries and professional backgrounds, together with considerable experience in teaching and learner support. That experience allows CAE to offer observations and suggestions on the design of overseas learning from the perspective of diverse learners.
During the exchange, James encouraged the development of a cross-border learning experience that went beyond an overseas study visit. Drawing on CAE’s long experience with learners of varied backgrounds, he highlighted English learning and the application of technology as two areas of particular strength in Singapore. Combined with a diverse environment and cross-cultural exposure, these could create more meaningful overseas learning opportunities for young people.
Following on from this discussion, Chao-Hsi Huang, Director of the Office of Public Affairs and Alumni Service at Tunghai University, spoke of the strong impression made by Marina Bay and the surrounding cityscape where CAE is located. In his view, such a setting captures Singapore’s character as a highly connected hub and provides a valuable context for young learners to encounter a wider world.
These exchanges gradually shaped the idea behind the Columbus Overseas Learning Programme, with curiosity, exploration and the courage to enter new environments and learn through discovery forming the spirit of the programme as a whole. Seen in this way, English, technology and cross-border learning are not separate objectives, but different means of turning that spirit of exploration into real learning experience.
Making the World Part of Learning
The Columbus Overseas Learning Programme is an important extension of the wider Learning Through Play, Inclusive Action initiative. Starting from rural and community education, the initiative has developed several strands, including rural engagement, technology learning, English expression and overseas experience, so that learning reaches beyond the familiar classroom and everyday environment into technology, language and a wider world.
In 2026, the Columbus Overseas Learning Programme developed further into an educational experience combining English, AI, cross-cultural exposure and overseas learning. Sixteen students encountered different languages, applications of technology and everyday environments through new learning settings and hands-on experience, turning knowledge that had been largely abstract into something they could observe, apply and understand for themselves.
This design reflects an important characteristic of the award-winning initiative. It is not a single activity, but a progression that begins with local education and connects educational resources, technology learning, language expression and overseas experience, creating more opportunities for children in less well-resourced areas to explore and grow.
It also echoes the spirit that the name Columbus represents: the courage to enter new environments and to learn through discovery, allowing the world itself to become part of learning.
Advancing Education Through Partnership
The Silver Award is not only recognition of an educational initiative that continues to develop, but also a reflection of sustained commitment and of the value created when institutions remain in dialogue and connection with one another. For CAE, taking part in a network of this kind echoes something we hold to be important about education: that it can connect institutions, communities and cultures.
Overseas education is about more than earning a qualification or studying abroad. It can also help learners encounter different ways of thinking, build confidence and look at their own futures from a broader perspective. CAE is glad to have taken part in and supported this meaningful initiative, and warmly congratulates Tunghai University and the You Rong Ji Education Foundation on this recognition.
Learning beyond borders begins with the courage to explore, and with the connections that turn exploration into genuine learning.