New Delhi, October 1, 2020.

In an endeavor to support Vocational Education and Training (VET) in India and Australia, the Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey and Mr. Barry O’Farrell, Australian High Commissioner, today organized a virtual meeting to operationalize & implement Cooperation in VET to promote development of occupational standards in priority industry sectors.

This was in line with the joint participation of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India and the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Australia in the India-Australia Leaders' Virtual Summit held on 4^thJune, 2020. 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.

During the meeting, Hon’ble Minister emphasized on making firm progress in the forthcoming Joint working group meeting between India & Australia. Talking about post-COVID era, Dr 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 graced by the august presence of Shri Praveen Kumar, Secretary, MSDE and Smt. 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.

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.