Government to launch 10 community colleges in collaboration with Canada

New Delhi: Of the 100 community colleges that will be set up by the MHRD this year, 10 of these would be set up in collaboration with Canadian Government. The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal said at the Global Skills Summit organized by FICCI here today. Putting things into context, the minister said, "Under the Adult Literacy Programme which aims to cover some 70 mn working age population in the age bracket of 18-64 years in the country by 2020, 60% are women. Since they can't move away from their holds due to family commitments, to make them skilled, we need community colleges which will reach out to them wherever they are residing."

The minister also talked about a recent pilot project on vocational education launched in Haryana schools last week. The next step of the pilot project will be West Bengal which if successful will be launched nationally with an opportunity to pursue higher courses such as BSc in vocational education for those who wish to pursue their education for a higher degree and make better use of their domain skills.

Talking about international collaborations he said there has to be a win-win situation for foreign players if we want them to invest in the country. This would typically happen with nations who have a demographic challenge in front of them. India for instance would have an average age of 29 years in 2020 while China and the US will have an average age of 37 years.

Agreed the German Ambassador to India, Michael Steiner. He said, "With an ageing population, it will be an win-win for us to collaborate with India on skill development. And we are collaborating with the Ministry of Labour by beginning the training of the first batch of master trainers next month onwards." Steiner also added that the sill development to be fruitful and successful the industry has to be deeply involved in it from designing course curriculum, evaluating and assessing the skills of candidates after they get trained to be absorbed in the workforce, the way it is in Germany.