13 September 2013 at 9:00 am
New Zealand education in the spotlight in India
Education New Zealand (ENZ) was the official country partner for the 6th Global Skills Summit in New Delhi organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in association with India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Ministry of Labour and Employment and the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC).
The three-day annual event, held from September 4–6, is the leading platform for discussion and dialogue on India’s skills challenges, and some 600 delegates participated, including more than 20 delegates from 12 New Zealand institutions.
In addition to maximum brand exposure as the country partner, and several speaking opportunities for New Zealand industry leaders, ENZ participated in a wide range of activities and events to build awareness of New Zealand’s expertise in skills, including launching a knowledge paper entitled: “Opportunities in India-New Zealand Skills Partnership”, that was launched by Indian Minister for Human Resource Development Dr Pallam Raju, pictured below, who visited New Zealand in July.
A roundtable meeting was also held for New Zealand delegates with Mrs Radha Chauhan (Joint Secretary – Ministry of Human Resource Development) and Mr RCM Reddy (Chairman – FICCI Skills Development Forum and CEO IL&FS Skills) – who jointly led the Indian skills delegation to New Zealand in April this year. Other members of the Indian delegation and significant partners joined the roundtable to do a stocktake of progress since the April visit and follow up on areas for further collaboration.
Other events at the Summit included a business-to-business session that enabled nine New Zealand institutions to showcase their strengths to more than 70 potential Indian partners for business development opportunities. There was strong interest in what New Zealand had to offer and the institutions have decided to take a collaborative approach to exploring this further, with ENZ support in India.
In the same week as the Summit, ENZ also hosted a successful series of New Zealand Education Fairs in Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi and Chandigarh to promote New Zealand as a student destination. All fairs received good turnout from potential students, attracted participation from several New Zealand educational institutions and resulted in comprehensive media coverage.
In Bangalore, the presence of former Black Cap Chris Cairns as an Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Brand Ambassador attracted a lot of attention!
ENZ also invited NZ Inc partners such as Tourism New Zealand, Immigration New Zealand, New Zealand apple promoters, Zespri and ANZ Bank to participate in the events. Overall feedback from New Zealand institutions was positive with many specifically commenting on the higher quality of students who attended the fairs this year compared to previous years.
