Bhubaneswar : With an aim to transform its skill development ecosystem, the state government on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singapore based ITE education services (ITEES).
As part of the collaboration, the Singapore based agency will share its experiences in technical and vocational training and provide consultancy support to the Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA), state’s nodal agency for skill development. ITEES is a subsidiary of Institute of Technical Education, Singapore.
“As many as 100 teachers from the state government-run industrial training institute (ITI) will visit Singapore for two-week training on leadership development in 2018,” said chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who was present during the MoU signing ceremony.
The programme aims to develop human and social capital and contributing towards the community development through skill development. The state government also looks forward to partner with other international agencies through ITEES. ITEES will also provide technical and vocational training consultancy to OSDA on its proposed Advanced Skill Training Institutes developed at at Angul, Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Jeypore, Bolangir, Jharsuguda and Rourkela.
Briefing reporters, chairman of the OSDA Subrato Bagchi said with the help of ITEES, the state government can push up the standards of its ITIs to global level. With a vision to impart skill development training to around 8 lakh youths in coming three years, the state government had established the OSDA.
The state government has the plans to set up World Skill Centre here. The Centre will be the first of its kind in the country. ITEES will provide technical assistance for shaping up the Centre, Bagchi added.
The 18-storey building coming up at Mancheswar area of the city is almost ready. While a skill museum will be developed on the ground floor, every floor will be dedicated to a particular skill area. It would be used for imparting high quality skill development and leadership training to youths.
The MoU was signed for a period of five years between Sanjay Kumar Singh, secretary, skill development and technical education department and Bruce Poh, chief executive officer of the ITEES.
In his reaction, Bruce said he is impressed with the vision of the state government for skill development. “We expect very long term collaboration between Odisha and Singapore,” he said.
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