In order to give further impetus to the education, training and skill development sector, the Punjab Government under the leadership...

Chandigarh, February 7: In order to give further impetus to the education, training and skill development sector, the Punjab Government under the leadership of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday inked an MoU with the Government of Alberta, Canada.  The two sides also agreed to explore information exchange and cooperation in other priority areas of energy, agriculture, environment management and technologies, beside aerospace, defence, hospitality and retail.  

The MoU was signed between Minister of Technical Education and Industrial Training Charanjit Singh Channi and Chief Assistant Deputy Minister Government of Alberta Matthew Machielse in the presence of the Chief Minister.  Captain Amarinder Singh also asked the Technical Education department to tie up with the Government of Alberta to leverage their experience and expertise in tackling opioid addiction.  

Giving details, an official spokesperson said the MoU would primarily concentrate on exchange of best practices and engagement of subject matter experts for enhancing capacity building for training and skill development. Commercial as well as government missions and tours will also be conducted in the territory of the participants, with a sharpened focus on trade, education, training of technology.

Apart from this, the MoU would also provide strategic advice on joint research opportunities and emerging technologies for improving innovation and mutual cooperation.  Underlining the complementary nature of both Indian and Canadian societies, the Chief Minister stressed on the need to aggressively share the existing information in other vital areas of mutual importance like Agriculture and engineering to ensure holistic development.

Captain Amarinder Singh also asked the visiting Canadian Minister to further explore the possibility of arranging more educational exchange programmes between the two countries to enhance learning opportunities for education policy makers, students and educators.  Reaffirming the state's commitment to empower students to become employable, Captain Amarinder Singh highlighted the success of various state drug abuse prevention programmes like Drug Abuse Prevention Officers (DAPO) and Buddy, which had proved to be a boon for bringing the affected youth back into the mainstream.

Over 160 OOAT Clinics set up by the state government were proving to be instrumental in effectively treating the youth inflicted with drugs, he added.  The visiting Canadian minister assured the Chief Minister of full support and cooperation in helping the state through exchange of expertise and technology transfer in the field of education, horticulture and skill development.  The meeting was attended, amongst others, by Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, Chief Principal Secretary to CM Suresh Kumar, Director Technical Education Praveen Thind. The delegation included Consul General Canada Mia Yen.