Page 3607 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 27 October 2015
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Meetings in Kerala also included successful meetings with the Minister for Education, where we discussed the skills development of Kerala through skills centres and in-school programs. CIT is investigating opportunities in this area, and the CIT Business Growth Director will be returning to India in November to continue negotiations. CIT is indeed well placed to assist the Kerala government in bringing skills and training to its population.
The second stage of the India trip was to Gujarat, the home state of the Prime Minister and seen as a model of education and economic development for India. Can I say that the high regard in which our visit to Gujarat was held was evidenced by the high calibre of opportunities to meet with counterparts in India.
Gujarat is home to the Gujarat Forensic Sciences University. CIT established contact with the university in 2014 through their delegation coming to Canberra. CIT, as we know, is renowned for skills development in forensics, with a large list of international clients, and has worked closely with, previously, Austrade and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to find the right partner to enter this high-profile state.
The Gujarat Forensic Sciences University is the only specialist forensics university in the world, hosting state-of-the-art facilities and with over 2,000 students in postgraduate studies. This institution and its staff are globally recognised as leaders in forensics and regularly invite other global leaders to their institution to build the knowledge base of forensic science and to promote best practice in the field.
This makes it all the more impressive that the delegation was warmly welcomed, and the ceremony and formality showed us how important this relationship is to them and just how much CIT is recognised in this field of study. The academic nature of their programs, teamed with the practical skills development of CIT, will be a formidable education partnership.
In Gujarat I also attended meetings with the Minister for Education where we discussed the newly signed MOU between the university and CIT and what this means for skills development of the law enforcement sector in their state and across the region. It was also acknowledged that bringing the state-of-the-art facility with its high-level academia together with the practical skills of the CIT will provide a platform ideally located to undertake development not only of the Indian police force but of forces across the subcontinent.
As a result of the MOU and the successful submission of the Australia-India Council grant through DFAT, three CIT staff are currently in India delivering an advanced fingerprinting workshop at the university to staff, students and police representatives.
India is a large, diverse country with many challenges. However, the enthusiasm displayed in India’s education regions of Kerala and Gujarat to learn from our training system and to develop particular programs with the ACT government to build the skill their workforce will enable them to reach their economic goals. It certainly made the trip worthwhile to be able to provide such assistance for a worthy ambition. Indeed
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