Edu Minister Pradhan: UGC, AICTE, NCERT should collaborate on mapping future skills

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated that the Centre is considering methods to incorporate skill development into the formal school education system. He emphasised the need for collaboration between the UGC, AICTE, and NCERT to establish a structure for identifying and developing future skills.

The minister also said “we need to de-link degrees from competency and envision a future where competency would prevail”.

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Pradhan made the comments in an interaction with reporters here ahead of the 3rd G20 Education Working Group Meeting on Tuesday (April 25).

“Deliberations are going on about how to formalise skilling in our school education system. Today, we discussed with the delegates from Singapore the way forward for a comprehensive and substantive partnership towards skilling,” he said.

Deliberations to aid implementation

The minister noted that the deliberations going on at G20 forum will aid the implementation of new National Education Policy by understanding and adopting best practices and global models.

“The University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council of technical Education (AICTE) and National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) must come together to create a framework for mapping future skills, ” he said.

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Foundation literacy and numeracy, tech-enabled learning, future of work and research collaborations are among the priority areas for deliberations during the third G20 Education Working Group meeting.

Various topics on the agenda

A conference on deep technology and transforming logistics for coastal economies, a workshop on the future of work and skill architecture, a seminar on building capacities for lifelong learning and an exhibition on future of work are part of the events which will be held as a precursor to the meeting.

The first meeting of the G20 Education Working Group was held in Chennai earlier this year, followed by the second at Amritsar last month. There would be three supplementary meetings of the education group before it arrives at a consensus in June.