Canadian Gov. Gen. David Johnston led a delegation to India promoting educational, cultural, and business-related liaisons with Canada Feb. 22 – March 2.
“The themes of our visit are education, innovation and entrepreneurship,” Johnston said in a statement. “This program reinforces our goal of fostering a smarter, more caring Canada in a fairer, more just world—a goal which we as leaders have a responsibility to work towards. This visit to India comes at an important time in the relationship between our two countries.”
The delegation included representatives from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the Canada India Foundation, and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), in addition to University of British Columbia (UBC) president and vice-chancellor Stephen Toope.
Toope was already in India for a week prior to Johnston’s arrival to officially inaugurate the university’s office in New Delhi, which it announced in November 2011, according to Leonel Roldan-Flores of UBC’s international office.
“The main mandate is to connect people, mostly researchers and people in academia and people in non-governmental associations, back to our researchers and administrations in Canada,” Roldan-Flores said.
Roldan-Flores said the office is important to UBC because of its focus on worldwide research, which requires the assistance of global partners.
While in India, ACCC president and CEO Denise Amyot, along with India’s National Skill Development Corporation, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
“Initiatives under this MOU will be based on the transfer of knowledge from Canada’s colleges, institutes and polytechnics, which are experts in providing career-focused education for employment,” Amyot said in a news release.
The MOU will work toward developing curriculum and teaching resources, standardization, testing and certification in India through the ACCC’s experience.
The MOU also supports objectives of India’s National Skills Policy to provide 500 million people with work skill development by 2022.
“The signing of the MOU between the National Skills Development Council and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges underscores the importance of skills development for economic growth, employment generation, and social development,” Johnston said in a press release.
