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THE SECTOR VIEW: BRITISH COUNCIL/TRAINING GATEWAY


training with the necessary soft skills will help to make TVET more effective and relevant. Trough an EU-funded project in India, we


provided free vocational education opportunities to young people in Sirsa and Sitapur. In partnership with City & Guilds UK and the Confederation of Indian Industry, we offered a blend of soft and industry skills training to help improve young people’s employment prospects. Trough a ‘Workplace English’ course, over 10,000 young people gained vital language and soft skills needed to enter the workplace. Tis was perfectly balanced with skills training across the manufacturing, agro-processing and tourism sectors, provided by our partners. Te programme has also created a set of local


trainers, ensuring the new training model remains locally relevant, sustainable and scalable.


SHARING BEST PRACTICE Sharing best practice through international skills partnerships between governments, businesses and education providers can help transform TVET systems and provides new learning opportunities. A government-to-government partnership


between the UK and China, which we are facilitating in conjunction with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, is encouraging joint collaboration to develop apprenticeship models. A series of pilots with British and Chinese companies and training providers is seeing the UK apprenticeship model being adapted to the Chinese context and is encouraging learning from best practice in both countries. Trough an EU-funded project in Iraq, we


worked in partnership with the Association of Colleges to provide training and job shadowing opportunities for TVET college leaders. Learning from UK best practice has helped these leaders turn their colleges into centres of excellence for other colleges in Iraq, while the training college leaders received led to a qualification from the Chartered Management Institute.


DIALOGUE AND PARTNERSHIP Bringing together key stakeholders is one of the most effective ways of encouraging systemic change in the vocational education sector. Tis approach not only puts TVET at the forefront of agendas, but can help influence change at a strategic level, which is so important in countries where TVET systems are particularly fragmented. Our work is dependent on the strong


partnerships we have formed with organisations in the UK and overseas. We also continue to offer UK experts opportunities to utilise their skills and experience on projects worldwide. Tese working partnerships have been imperative for achieving success in transforming skills development.


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To find out more about our work in Skills and Employability, go to www.britishcouncil.org/ education/skills-employability or contact skills@ britishcouncil.org. If you are interested in consultancy or partnership opportunities with the British Council, go to www.britishcouncil.org/partner/international- development/consultancy-opportunities


46 EXPERTVIEW SPRING 2015


For more information go to www.thetraininggateway.com


TRADE MISSIONS ARE INVALUABLE FOR BRITISH BUSINESSES, SAYS TRAINING GATEWAY’S AMANDA SELVARATNAM


Since 2008 The Training Gateway has helped thousands of British companies find training partnerships across the world. Set up by Amanda Selvaratnam, the head of Continuing Professional Development at York University, it links training providers and businesses who are looking for corporate and executive training run by academics or accredited companies. It also facilitates educational partnerships particularly between overseas and British universities. The site is free to use and posts details of training courses and trade missions. “We work with colleagues to find upcoming business opportunities and speak to our members about key markets they


WHEN WE SEE THERE’S A MARKET WORTH LOOKING AT WE APPROACH UKTI AND SEE IF WE CAN SET UP A TRADE MISSION.’


are interested in. When we see there’s a market worth looking at we approach UKTI and see if we can set up a trade mission,” says Amanda. “We recently took a mission to Indonesia and made introductions to around 100 different organisations through networking events and visits. We aim to help people understand what these opportunities are and what it would really be like to work in a particular country, We try to visit an educational organisation to see the quality of the facilities and the type of clients they have - it’s no good looking at a glossy


brochure; you have to see the equipment. It has to equate to the environment we want to work in and the type of clients we want to get. “You have to be seen to win business overseas,” explains recruitment chief Munir Mamujee who won business through the Indonesia trade mission. I always sign up for The Training Gateway’s trade missions because they put me in front of people I would normally never get the chance to see.” EV


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