NEW DELHI: The third Education Working Group (EdWG) meeting of G20 concluded on April 28 in Bhubaneswar with a strong commitment to ensuring the betterment of learners in terms of skilling, upskilling and reskilling.
The three-day seminar and meeting revolved around priority area of “Building Capacities and promoting lifelong learning in the context of the future of work”.
The meeting was attended by K. Sanjay Murthy, Secretary Higher Education; Sanjay Kumar, Secretary School Education and Literacy, and Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary Skill, Development and Entrepreneurship.
Over 60 delegates from 27 countries, including G20 members and international organisations such as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), and Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), were also present.
Future of work seminar
The meeting kicked off with a seminar on the future of work in collaboration with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. It was divided into three sessions of panel discussions, covering the themes of building an agile response to the needs of labour markets and institutional capacity building in the context of the future of work, creating pathways between higher and vocational education, and equipping children with a range of future skills for lifelong learning.
The delegates shared their policies and initiatives in vocational education and training, and acknowledged the importance of upskilling and reskilling to keep up with the evolving world.
Needed new-age skills
The inaugural session on the first day was addressed by Union Minister of State for Education, Subhas Sarkar, who spoke about the importance of investing in education and skill development to equip people with necessary knowledge, capabilities, skills, and attitudes to succeed in the 21st century.
The meeting saw discussions on the outcome documents in preparation for the Education Minister’s meeting in June, which continued till the last day. On the sidelines of the meeting, a multimedia exhibition was organised on the same topic. Key participants in the exhibition included NCERT, MEITY, IKS (Indian Knowledge System), TRIFED, Singapore, Unicef, Meta, IIT Bhubaneswar, IIM Sambalpur, NIT Rourkela, CSIRIMMT, Auroville Foundation, and many others from industry, academia, Government agencies, multilateral agencies, startups, and more.
