江南大学环境与生态学院

The underlying foundation of this event is the continuously deepening university-locality collaboration between Yixing and Jiangnan University.

In September 2022, Jiangnan University's Dongjiu Campus was officially opened, and the School of Environment and Ecology became the first secondary school to fully relocate to the Yixing campus, with its disciplinary direction highly aligned with Yixing's environmental protection industry cluster.

In January 2026, the school's Board of Directors Annual Meeting was successfully convened, establishing a collaborative innovation platform among industry, science and technology, and education. In the same month, the association delegation visited the school, where both parties held in-depth discussions on scientific and technological innovation, talent cultivation, and achievement transformation, reaching a consensus—technological R&D should stay close to the actual needs of enterprises, emphasizing economic viability and engineering-oriented transformation.

In June 2026, the Jiangnan University–Yixing City "University-Locality Collaboration · Dual Entry of Schools and Enterprises" Industry-University-Research Cooperation Exchange Matchmaking Conference was held, and a batch of off-campus teaching internship bases were officially unveiled, marking substantive progress in the deep integration of industrial resources and talent cultivation.

Seventeen member units of the association are simultaneously board member units of Jiangnan University's School of Environment and Ecology. This "dual identity" gives the cooperation an institutional bond—enterprises are both service recipients of the association and deeply involved in the school's disciplinary construction and talent cultivation program deliberation, promoting precise alignment between intellectual resources and industrial needs.

It is against this backdrop that the association, for the first time, coordinated the production internship for Jiangnan University's Environmental Engineering program in a team format. From June 18 to July 24, 17 third-year students were dispatched to six member enterprises of the association to complete a five-week production internship.

The achievement report serves as a concentrated test of this internship's effectiveness. Professor Cao Xuesong, Vice Dean of Jiangnan University's School of Environment and Ecology, pointed out in his opening remarks that production internship is a critical leap in environmental engineering talent cultivation from classroom to practice, and thanked the association for building an efficient organizational platform for university-enterprise collaboration.

During the report session, 17 students took the stage in sequence, each limited to 10 minutes. Starting from enterprise overview and job responsibilities, they systematically reviewed their main work content; focusing on real experiences, they described how they applied course knowledge to analyze and solve on-site technical problems; shared professional skill gains and career quality improvements; and, drawing on internship observations, offered their own observations and reflections on industry trends.

The judging panel, composed of school faculty and member enterprise representatives (school side: Vice Dean Professor Cao Xuesong, Associate Researcher Cui Minhua, Associate Professor Wang Han; association side: Li Zhanzhong, Chairman of Vice-Presidential Member Unit Xinhuilin Environment; Ding Kangjun, Deputy General Manager of Vice-Presidential Member Unit Ruiding Environment; and Executive Secretary-General Xu Linlan), scored independently across five dimensions: internship attitude, learning and observation ability, thinking and analytical ability, demeanor and expression, and reflection and growth.

What makes this report special is that it tested more than just the students. The quality of student presentations directly reflects whether enterprises mentored with dedication and whether internship positions were substantive. Behind the report lies the entire enterprise's attitude toward talent cultivation and mentoring standards.

After the report, the mentor representative from member enterprise Lanbisheng Chemical Environmental Protection shared mentoring insights and the company's new employee training system. The mentoring process was also a self-examination—the new perspectives and new questions brought by students prompted the enterprise to rethink talent screening and cultivation standards, truly achieving mutual growth through teaching and learning.

Pan Hailong, General Manager of Jiangsu Taiyuan Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., a vice-presidential member unit of the association, pointed out in his concluding remarks that production internship is both a required course for students and a practical benchmark for enterprises to discover reserve talent and reflect on their own training systems. He offered encouragement and expectations to students regarding professional depth, presentation format, and personal growth, and stated that the association would use this event as a starting point to continuously deepen the long-term mechanism of "internship—report—feedback."

The prize money and expenses for this event were fully supported by Jiangsu Taiyuan Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. through the association's public welfare fund.

Enterprises giving back to education through public welfare not only demonstrates their responsibility toward the reserve forces of the environmental protection industry but also provides a replicable path reference for more member enterprises to participate in talent cultivation.

Organizing university internships is one facet of the association's service to member enterprises in talent cultivation.

Since its establishment in 2022, the association has consistently positioned itself as a "government assistant, industry promoter, and enterprise helper." Currently, its member units cover nearly 300 enterprises in fields such as water treatment, solid waste treatment, and environmental protection equipment manufacturing, hosting over 30 empowerment events of various types annually and serving over 3,000 enterprise personnel per year. In 2025, the association was awarded the highest rating of "5A-Level Social Organization."

In the field of talent cultivation, the association's work goes far beyond "arranging internships." From building university-enterprise matchmaking platforms and organizing industry-university-research exchanges to promoting industry-education integration and guiding enterprises to improve their internal talent cultivation systems, the association continuously empowers the talent team building of member enterprises. For this internship, from position matching and process management to achievement reporting, the association coordinated throughout, helping enterprises transform internship guidance from "passive reception" to "active participation" and integrate it into their talent strategies.

The deeper intention is that the association hopes to use benchmark demonstrations to drive more member enterprises to truly keep talent cultivation in mind, hold it in hand, and put it into action. A high-quality internship mentoring process is itself a practical exercise in enterprise talent cultivation methodology—from position design and process management to achievement verification, all links are interconnected. What the association does is provide member enterprises with a set of replicable and promotable practical templates.

Conclusion