Indo-Canadian education collaboration can help bring about the much needed connect between the industry and the academia
Arecent Indo-Canadian seminar on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in the Capital discussed the urgent need for a connect between industry and academia.
Addressing the seminar, David Agnew, president of Canada-based Seneca College, said: “The country needs to train its young workforce for global employability and to achieve this target, focus should be both on comprehensive skill development. In India, major challenge is gaps in skill set and lack of gainful consultations with industry to recognise the actual demand. In Canada, industry stakeholders are consulted and are part of programme advisory committee at Ontario Colleges.”
India, he said, could study Canada’s Ontario system where the programmes embed cross-disciplinary and experiential learning and provide flexible learning options that enable students to learn during the day, in the evening, on weekends and in person and online.
“In pursuit of new ideas in the field of entrepreneurship and to focus on quality training in skill development, Seneca, a public post secondary institutions offers a comprehensive range of programs across all disciplines to nearly 28,500 full time and 70,000 part-time registrants in campuses across the Greater Toronto area. Our graduate certificates, degrees, diplomas and certificates attract more than 7,000 students from 150 countries around the world and student from across Canada. With an emphasis on work-integrated learning, interdisciplinary study and flexible learning opportunities, we are a pre-eminent institution in Ontario, Agnew said and stressed the need for Indo-Canadian collaborative project to nurture knowledge, skills, and advance the quality of education,” he added.
“We will be building on the strengths of our students and continue the pursuit of innovation. For the first time we have collaborated in the area of online education to deliver executive management programmes (EMP) to working professionals in India and abroad. The EMPs will be jointly delivered by Canadian and Indian Professors. India is in need of more vocational training centres, as well as investment from industry, Government and academic institutions, to make higher education more market-oriented,” Agnew said.
It is the lack the exposure to international and global environment that Indian students face. “With the coming of larger number of international students to India, our students are likely to be more conscious of the global developments. Such initiatives will help Indian students global citizens ready to be absorbed in the national and global employment market. India must use its Science base to leverage the demographic dividend,” he stressed.
With deepening educational ties with India, there will be more partnerships to provide innovative solutions and tangible outcomes. “We have recognised the needs to suit to the requirements of the industry to ensure enhancement of life of the population,” Agnew said and added that India would rise to be the Human Resources Capital of the world by appropriately skilling its youth and convert its advantage into a dividend.
“Skill development and entrepreneurship initiatives will help actualise the inert potential,” he said.