India and Australia will collaborate on skills development to enable 25 per cent of the total employable international workforce to be from India, said Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya.
A decision in this regard was made by both Dattatreya and Ian Macfarlane, Australian Minister for Industry at the launch of the Third India- Australia Skills Conference here.
This is an initiative of the Australia India Education Council in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
Dattatreya applauded the efforts of Mr. Macfarlane by personally coming to Mumbai and giving this initiative the impetus it deserved.
He welcomed the 100-member Australian skills Business Delegation.
He highlighted his ministry's initiatives on skills and reiterated that skill development is a priority of the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government.
He stated that with India going to add 10 million people to the work force each year, they would need to be skilled and employable.
He mentioned that training conducted by companies has helped to produce a competitive workforce.
Macfarlane said India hosting the conference was a testament of the commitment of both countries on collaborating in skills.
He pointed out that by 2020, 25 per cent of the total international manpower employed will be Indian, and hence, it is the most opportune time to bring vocational training in India to an International standard for higher mobility.
He further announced new enhanced trainer and assessor courses recognizing high quality training and trainer need known as Future Unlimited Training and Assessment Courses pioneered in India. The courses will be launched in three formats.
Satish Jamdar, Chairman, CII-AA Sub Committee and MD Blue Star limited reiterated the support and commitment of CII for the India- Australia Skills initiative. This is in continuation with the initial efforts where CII took a skills business delegation to Australia in year 2012.
He mentioned that the seven Sector Skills Councils promoted by CII have shown keenness to learn and adapt best practices from Australian Industry Skills Council. CII also looks forward to working with Australian training partners to collaborate in setting up of training centres in India.
Mr Alok Kumar, Director General of Employment and Training and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, spoke about the various schemes being promoted by the Ministry for Labour and Employment.
Dilip Chenoy, CEO and Managing Director, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Co-Chair, AIEC Skills Working Group, mentioned that from the summit, the takeaways are expected by collaboration demonstrated in three areas like greater Australian presence in the skills space in India, intense cooperation and collaboration between standard and setting originations to assure people trained in India and Australia are amongst the best and through cooperation and collaboration which improve ability to win medals at World Skills Competition.
He added that the 11 MoUs signed between Australian and Indian partners in skills was a testimony to this.
The conference was in continuation to the CII's 6th Global Summit on Skill Development and saw speakers and delegates from Japan, South Korea, Canada, Germany, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia and many more.
