JOY Burch is starting a tour of India’s to promote the ACT’s capability in vocational training and enhance collaborative education arrangements in India.

Joy says the Indian Government has set a target to create a 500 million-strong skilled workforce by 2022 to underpin the nation’s emerging status as an economic superpower.

“The needs of India have opened up important partnership opportunities for the ACT education sector,” she said.

“The ACT public training system enjoys a strong reputation with schools, training institutions and officials in India, and it will be a pleasure to be able to represent our premier education and training system to develop real partnership opportunities that will utilise the vast industry and training expertise in the ACT.

Joy, along with CIT’s Chief Executive Officer Leanne Cover, will meet with major technology company NeST IT, Indian education ministers and training institutions in the Indian education regions of Kerala and Gujarat over a week to discuss training partnership opportunities.

She will discuss a number of agreements and sign memoranda of understanding with Indian Government officials and Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) to develop training into schools and to the adult population in the areas of spatial information and surveying and forensic science.

“CIT has a wealth of international experience in delivering training in these specialised areas of technology, and that these agreements will help meet the training needs of India’s developing economy and be the beginning of a mutually beneficial international partnership,” Joy said.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm in India’s education regions of Kerala and Gujarat to learn from the ACT’s training system and develop particular programs with the ACT Government that will skill their workforce, enabling them to reach their economic goals.

“It is a fantastic opportunity to position the ACT Government and our public training system as the education partner of choice as this fast-growing nation looks to upskill and diversify.”