DELHI, DECEMBER 4. Honda Cars India Ltd, the well-known passenger cars manufacturing company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Delhi-based Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC) for accreditation of its premier training centre, the Honda Vocational Training Institute (HVTI), in Alwar, Rajasthan.
HVTI (estb.2011) is Honda’s state-of-the-art technical training centre promoted to develop skilled manpower with automobile specific training to create job opportunities for class XII school-leavers and students of India’s 13,105 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). ASDC accreditation will enable HVTI to deliver vocational training to youth following curriculums and protocols preset by ASDC. Students completing HVTI courses will multiply their job options and improve their employment prospects.

“Since inception through our HVTI initiative, we have trained almost 14,000 students creating a pool of skilled manpower to meet the needs of a growing automotives industry. This initiative reiterates Honda’s commitment to youth development. By joining hands with ASDC, we will be extending support to local communities and become an enabler of positive transformation,” said Praveen Paranjape, vice president and director (general affairs) of Honda Cars India Ltd.

ASDC is the first sector skill council of India promoted by representative organisations of automobile and components manufacturers and dealers together with the Union government.

Shell launches NXplorers

NEW DELHI, DECEMDER 18. Shell (India) launched a global science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programme titled NXplorers in the presence of Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister, Delhi at a programme attended by students, school principals, teachers and media. According to company spokespersons, NXplorers will become operational in 30 schools in New Delhi.

NXplorers is a programme developed to nurture young minds to design sustainable solutions to ease the pressure on food, water and energy supply, using a unique combination of systems thinking, scenario planning and theory of change. The programme is being rolled out across four states in India and aims to reach 3,000 schools and 260,000 students between ages 14-19 years by 2020. The NXplorers programme is already operational in 14 countries including Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Australia, Oman, Qatar, UAE, China, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines and Trinidad.

“Food, water and energy systems form the foundation of national growth and development. Water is needed to extract energy and generate power; energy is needed to treat and transport water; and both water and energy are needed to grow food. Our NXplorers programme aims to instill complex and creative thinking skills in young Indian minds to bring about a positive change to our country’s food-water-energy nexus,” said Nitin Prasad, chairman, Shell India, speaking on the occasion.

Next-Amazon conferences

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 20. The Hyderabad-based Next Education India Pvt. Ltd announced the rollout of nationwide conferences on ‘EdTech solutions for 21st century schools’ in 25 cities across India. The conferences will be held in association with Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com which provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments, on a paid subscription basis. The conferences will highlight and debate latest trends in education technology and their significance for K-12 education.

Next Education has been using Amazon Web Services (AWS) since 2008 to provide its products including the Next Learning Programme (NLP). A cloud-based smart platform, NLP is a powerful combination of enterprise resource planning and learning management systems which can meet the administrative and academic needs of K-12 schools.

“Typical classrooms in tier-II and tier-III cities continue with students sitting through hour-long teacher monologues. There is dire need of tech intervention in their pedagogies. Next Education and AWS have developed empowering technology to enhance the quality, affordability and accessibility of education for teachers, students and institutions. Therefore by conducting these seminars, we can help education technology businesses to grow and scale rapidly, and provide learning and teaching resources to even the remotest areas of the country,” said Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO & co-founder of Next Education, addressing the media in Delhi.

IIT-D Educarnival

DELHI, DECEMBER 20. The 10th Educarnival of IIT-Delhi was inaugurated by Ms. Grace Pinto, chairperson of the Ryan International Group of Institutions — India’s largest chain of K-12 schools — and Prof. Harish Chaudhary, director, IIT-Delhi.

The theme of Educarnival 2018 was ‘Roadmap to world-class schools’. More than 1,000 school leaders, principals and teachers attended the three-day event. “Educarnival featured multiple workshops and plenary sessions in which speakers discussed major issues confronting school managements. The objective is to enhance the capabilities of school leaders and teachers,” says an IIT-Delhi spokesperson.

Added Manish Sisodia, deputy chief and education minister of the Delhi state government: “In the past four years, government schools of Delhi have seen the hunger to learn among their teachers, and have initiated several in-service training programmes to strengthen the abilities of school leaders and teachers.”