India, Singapore agree to establish Joint Working Group for knowledge, skill partnership

NEW DELHI: Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan met Lawrence Wong, deputy prime minister and minister for finance, Singapore today at IIT Gandhinagar on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Meeting. The ministers agreed to finalise and sign agreement for cooperation in education and skill development.

Pradhan recently visited Singapore. In the three-day visit that concluded on May 31, the education minister said the aim of the visit was to “strengthen the countries' shared commitment to achieve prosperity for all through joint initiatives in the fields of education and skills”.

After today's meeting, Dharmendra Pradhan said that he had a meaningful conversation with the deputy prime minister of Singapore on deepening the engagement in all areas beginning from ‘School to Skills’.

“We resolved to finalise and sign G-to-G MoU for cooperation in education and skill development and establish a Joint Working Group for incorporating each others best practices and realising the full potential of knowledge and skills partnership for our future generations,” Pradhan said in a tweet.

We resolved to finalise and sign G-to-G MoU for cooperation in education and skill development and establish a Joint Working Group for incorporating each others best practices and realising the full potential of knowledge and skill’s partnership for our future generations. pic.twitter.com/IH1gygxTCV

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) July 16, 2023

The minister said through the partnership both the countries will focus on empowering youth with critical skills, integration of vocational education in schools, future-proofing workforce, capacity building of academic institutions, teachers and trainers, and research and innovation collaborations are India’s priorities.

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The ministry of education's All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) held the finale of the third-edition of the Singapore-India (SI) Hackathon at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar campus.

The minister also felicitated the winners of the hackathon competition. Over 800 students, start-ups, investors, policymakers, corporates, and academics attended the finale at IIT Gandhinagar. The winners won cash prizes of up to Rs 12 lakhs.