India and Singapore have agreed to work together and create opportunities for lifelong learning, building a future-ready workforce, and making knowledge & skill development a key pillar of strategic partnership. This was stated after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is on a three-day visit to Singapore had a constructive meeting with DPM & Minister for Finance, Singapore, Lawrence Wong on strengthening the existing cooperation between India and Singapore with focus on deepening engagements in skill development.
Pradhan is visiting Singapore to strengthen existing ties and to explore the possibility for widening the scope of bilateral engagement in education and skill development. The minister also had an insightful discussion with Singapore’s Minister of Trade and Industry H.E Mr. Gan Kim Yong. The Ministers had fruitful conversations on strengthening our skill development and vocational training linkages through all mechanisms for creating a seamless architecture for skilling and lifelong learning. Building on the outcomes of the G20 Future of Work workshop in Bhubaneswar, they also discussed ways in which India can leverage the expertise and knowledge of Singapore for addressing common challenges and transforming the Indian skills ecosystem.
Pradhan had the opportunity to have a greater overview of the best practices and models being followed in Singapore for training of workforce. Both the Ministers agreed to advance mutual priorities in skilling, create new opportunities for lifelong learning and collaborate together for the benefit of our countries as well as other emerging economies.
During the meeting, Pradhan said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian Government launched the National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020, which is specifically focussing on providing early exposure to vocational education in middle schools, ensuring that market relevance of training as well as building capacity of our institutions to provide technical and vocational education. He further informed the Government is also working towards integrating skills qualifications framework with higher education qualification framework and investing in developing short-term and long-term training programs to provide skilling, re-skilling and upskilling opportunities. The Minister stressed on learning from the best practices of Singapore, collaborate and customize it to meet Indian needs.
