India and Australia strengthen cooperation in skill development, Vocational Education and Training (VET)

To strengthen the cooperation in skill development and  Vocational Education and Training (VET) between India and Australia, the Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey and Mr. Barry O’Farrell, Australian High Commissioner, participated in a virtual meeting to operationalize and  implement cooperation in VET to promote development of occupational standards in priority industry sectors.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and High Commission of Australia conduct virtual meeting to strengthen cooperation in skill development and Vocational Education and Training (VET).

The virtual meeting was in line with the Virtual Summit held on 4th June, 2020 which was attended by the Prime Minister of India and the Prime Minister of Australia in the India-Australia Leaders.  Earlier, on this occasion, a Joint Statement for Comprehensive Strategic Partnership document between both the countries was announced including the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the Department of Education, Skills.

The MoU will establish new pathways between the two countries to share information and best practice between the respective VET systems. The agreement will help identify new ways of working together and areas of possible collaboration that include mutual priority areas of industry engagement, quality assurance models, and teaching standards. So far, MSDE has signed MOUs with eight countries including Japan, UAE, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Finland and Morocco for cooperation in the field of vocational education and training.

The partnership will help foster closer ties between the governments and training providers, and ultimately, open up new areas of opportunity for millions of VET learners in both countries.

Talking about post-COVID era, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey highlighted the skill priorities of India like, mapping of job roles in the health sector and better migration and mobility. These are high priority areas for India as per the New Education policy in enhancing Vocational education in School education and the collaboration with Australia shall be crucial in this aspect.

Mr. Barry O’Farrell, Australian High Commissioner said, “The joint working group meeting will further assist us in formulating focussed interventions to deliver on the skills agenda across both the nations. Through this partnership, we will ensure a collaborative and clear plan of action to address the priority areas in skill development.”

Further in the joint meeting, which was also attended by Shri Praveen Kumar, Secretary, MSDE and Ms. Juthika Patankar, Additional Secretary, MSDE, the importance of joint planning and implementation of collaborative programmes was emphasized with a focus on salient points such as industry sectors; enhancing capacity and quality of trainers and assessors; internships and apprenticeship exchanges and; facilitation of linkages between VET providers and industry in both the countries.

Also read: FLO, the women’s wing of FICCI partners NSDC to empower women through skill training https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/flo-the-womens-wing-of-ficci-partners-nsdc-to-empower-women/