India, Australia come together to collaborate on skill development

This is an initiative undertaken to share a common interest in developing transnational standards to strengthen skills mobility and facilitate greater access to skilled labour across the region and support broader cooperation and mutual assistance in technical vocational education and training in their respective countries.

 The MoU was signed in the presence of  Prime Minister  Narendra Modi, and  Prime Minister of Australia  Tony Abbott, Australian High Commissioner to India -  Patrick Suckling and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NSDC -  Dilip Chenoy.

 Under this MoU, the two countries will focus on the exchanging information and policy ideas on issues of mutual interest including TVET in both countries.

The partnership includes the development of competency standards, assessment and certification, particularly skills assessments for migration and/or occupational purposes. The engagement also focuses on industry participation in TVET policy development, training delivery, assessment and certification, and formal work-based training such as apprenticeships.

 By November 2014, the two countries aim to run a pilot around the same in the four sectors i.e. Automotive, Healthcare, IT and Telecom. The Sector Skill Councils and Industry Skill Councils, will work together to set a process to benchmark Indian and Australian Standards respectively, in order to create transnational standards for both the countries.

 Patrick Suckling said, “We are delighted to see the kind of focus Indian government has on Skill Development.  It is encouraging to see the Prime Minister of India set out the agenda on the National Skill Mission and partner with us to fulfil the skills requirement of both the countries.

 Our partnership will be focused on undertaking an innovative approach for addressing skills shortage, and will have credible long term solutions for young people entering the workforce”.

 Dilip Chenoy from NSDC welcomed the announcements and said, “NSDC appreciates the collaboration between Australia and India on Skills initiatives and is confident that this partnership will be beneficial to both the countries in strengthening our skills ecosystem.”

 Earlier in the year, between 21st to 25th July, a high powered delegation comprising representatives from NSDC, SSCs and NSDC training partners had visited Australia. The three visiting SSCs (Automotive, Healthcare and IT) signed MoUs with their Australian counterparts to create transnational standards in respective sectors at Canberra, while the MOU for the Telecom sector has been signed now during the visit Australian Prime Minister.

In April 2010, the Australian and Indian Education Ministers signed a Joint Ministerial Statement agreeing to establish a bi-national body, the Australia India Education Council (AIEC), as a forum for senior Australian and Indian academician, training and industry representatives to work with Ministers to guide the strategic direction of the knowledge partnership in education, training and research.

In August 2011, the AIEC convened the inaugural meeting in New Delhi, India, co-chaired by the Education Ministers. The AIEC meeting endorsed five key projects including skills, higher education collaboration, research, quality assurance and student mobility.
 
The AIEC Skills Working Group, co-chaired by an Australian and Indian member, is a sub-working group and focuses on industry engagement in skills development.

 Through the AIEC Skills Working Group, the NSDC and the Department of Industry have developed a strong bilateral relationship.

 National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), which was formed under the Ministry of Finance, is a one of its kind public-private partnership with 51 per cent equity held by private sector and the balance 49 per cent by the Union Government. Formed in 2010, NSDC is a professionally run not-for-profit company that includes 31 Sector Skill Councils and 150 training partners with over 2500+ training centres spread across 366 districts in the country. NSDC is mandated to skill 150 million Indians by 2022.