Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has said that in the rapidly evolving global landscape, the foundation of any nation’s prosperity is its youth.  To ensure that they are the driving force in shaping the future, countries are investing in their education and skill development.  It is important to fulfil our commitments towards inclusive, equitable, high quality education and skill & vocational training for the Next generation.  Shri Pradhan stated this while giving his opening remarks at the first meeting of AIESC here today. 

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pradhan mentioned that this platform offered tremendous potential in three critical areas for the future.  These included standardization of skill courses in both countries, wherein the regulators could work in close coordination.  The need of the hour is to improve access to work and skilling opportunities for the people of both countries.  It is critical to look into issues related to bilateral skill delivery, upskilling opportunities and address matters related to labour issues.  It is critical that credentials and certifications do not come in the way of work opportunities.   It is important to ensure that people have access to such certifications in a cost-effective manner.  The Minister also emphasized on the need to diversify our partnership in areas such as Research and Innovation by pooling our resources, sharing our expertise, and engaging in collaborative research projects on shared priorities.  The Minister also highlighted the key features of the transformative National Education Policy 2020 wherein he specifically mentioned the key areas such as Multi-disciplinary education, Seamless movement across school, higher and skill education, Academic Bank of Credit, Multiple entry-exit options for students, Vocational and skill education as a part of mainstream education right from the school stage with an aim to vocationally empower at least 50% of our youth by 2025 and strengthening Industry-academia linkage.

During the course of the meeting, discussions were held on three key areas i.e. shaping of future workforces, strengthening institutional partnerships in education and driving research impact through internationalisation.  For shaping our future workforces, both Ministers decided to focus on six priority sectors such as health and care sectors, agriculture, renewable energy, digital, mining and logistics.   Regarding institutional partnerships, the Ministers welcomed the establishment of Australia-India Education Collaboration Working Group and suggested that the engagement with institutions would take the agenda forward.  The Ministers welcomed the signing of the Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement between India and Australia in May, 2023 which would facilitate greater mobility and exchange of students, academicians and skilled professionals between the two countries.

Both the Ministers reaffirmed their joint commitment to implement qualification recognition arrangements under the Mechanism for the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications and acknowledged the work done by the Australia-India Qualifications Recognition Steering Committee.  Regarding research collaborations, Shri Pradhan mentioned that India is working on the Phase III of the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) Programme and priority areas would include joint projects in critical minerals, rare earths and other mutually agreed priority areas.  India has earmarked 2.5 million USD for Joint Research Projects with Australia.

Both the Ministers also welcomed the signing of five MoUs highlighting new educational and skill partnerships.  Innovative Research Universities MoU provides a framework for closer cooperation between parties in strengthening Australia – India education partnership.   Under the MOU, the participating members (Flinders University, Griffith University, James Cook University, La Trobe University, University of Canberra and Western Sydney University) will work together to explore the potential for a consortium approach for delivery of degrees in India and expand access to Australian higher education for Indian students.  The MoU between National Skills Development Corporation and Deakin University addresses skill shortages in India through ‘Global Job Readiness Programme’.  The partnership between IIT Gandhinagar and Deakin University will focus on collaboration in science and innovation, mobility, faculty exchange and joint doctoral programmes.  MoU between Monash University & IIT Hyderabad focusses on academic and research activities in the area of critical minerals among others.  The MoU between Monash University and International Center of Excellence in Mining, Ahmedabad aims to support mining and mineral development sector in India.  The Ministers were also apprised of the existing institutional collaborations of Australian Universities in India, which stood at 454. 

            Earlier, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan held a Bilateral Meeting with his Australian counterpart,

Hon’ble Mr. Jason Clare to discuss issues of mutual importance in the education and skill sector.  Both Ministers reviewed the progress of the institutional framework in the backdrop of bilateral meetings held in the past.  Both agreed to strengthen ties in areas of mutual interest in the education, skill and training sector.   

The Ministers visited Centre for Creative Learning, IIT Gandhinagar, which works on nurturing scientific temper and the inherent creativity in students and teachers through creation of tools, dissemination of ideas focussing on STEM art, Toys, setting up of Science centres and Lab work at IIT Gandhinagar.  The Ministers also visited Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU) and Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK).   PDEU was established to keep pace with the fast developing and competitive energy industry to plan for the future and to continuously build requisite intellectual capital and human resource skills.

CB/GP/JD