Education Briefs

Newcastle U scholarships

Newcastle University’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering invites students from overseas (including India) to apply for its £3,000 (Rs.2.5 lakh) scholarships. To qualify for the scholarships, applicants need to have been admitted into Newcastle U through Britain’s common UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) system. 

The extension of the scholarship in subsequent years will be conditional on achieving satisfactory performance in the previous year. The scholarship amount will be used each year to reduce university tuition fees payable on registration. 

“This scholarship has been benefitting Indian students for many years. Students aspiring for admission into Newcastle U for the academic year beginning September need to apply now through UCAS,” says a university spokesperson. 

 

iNurture new-age programmes

In partnership with Galileo Education Network — Europe’s largest education network — and Kolar (Karnataka)-based Golden Valley Education Trust, the Bangalore-based iNurture is all set to launch new-age global programmes for undergraduates and postgrads in India. This initiative provides opportunities for students to acquire real-world business experience combined with rigorous academics to prepare them for global careers in luxury, sports, tourism and hospitality management and design and digital technologies.

“Our goal is to help students apply the knowledge and skills they learn to solve real-world problems and ultimately demonstrate how their higher education directly relates to their career interests and aspirations. This is possible because of the global industry partnerships that Galileo brings to India,” said Ashwin Ajila, founder-managing director of iNurture, addressing the media in Bangalore on June 19. He added that these programmes are based on increasingly popular higher education models transforming schools in Europe and other parts of the world. 

 

ISLI gets going

The Mumbai-based Indian School Leadership Institute (ISLI, estb.2013) which conducts leadership training programmes for school principals and headmasters, will train 40 government school principals over the next two academic years (2017-19) in Bangalore. This announcement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between ISLI and the Karnataka government’s department of public instruction in March 2016. 

“Our objective is to create a culture of excellence for teachers and students by empowering and skilling school leaders to foster institutional growth and development,” says Sreeja Nedungadi, chief operating officer of ISLI. 

Currently, ISLI — founded by the highly-reputed Mumbai-based Akanksha Foundation — is conducting teacher training and development programmes in 54 government schools in Pune and Hyderabad and has signed up 400 principals country- wide for its leadership programme. 

 

Schneider skills-building initiative

Schneider Electric India has signed an MoU with the Kalinga Institute of Technology (KIIT) and C.V. Raman College of Engineering, both in Bhubaneswar (Odisha), to develop skilled manpower for the electricity, automation and energy management industries. 

KIIT and C.V. Raman College have already established industry incubation centres under guidance from Schneider. Comments Rachna Mukherjee, chief human resources officer of Schneider Electric: “This MoU is in line with our vision to develop a globally competitive talent pool in India, armed with futuristic skill-sets aligned to the requirements of the electricity energy management and automation industries. With our deep understanding of the changing skills requirements of industry, Schneider is committed to support India in its human resources capability-building programmes. Through these strategic partnerships, we intend to deliver the best training and skills development programmes to accelerate transformation of these new-age industries.”

 

Siemens helping hand

Siemens Industry Software India Pvt. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens PLM Software, USA, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Government Tool Room and Training Centre of the government of Karnataka and DesignTech Systems Ltd to establish four centres of excellence (CoEs) in the state. 

Under the terms of the MoU, world-class integrated skill development infrastructure and technical education curriculums for mechatronics and Internet of Things (IOT) will be made available to the CoEs to improve productivity in the automotive, industrial machinery, industrial automation, renewable energy and aerospace and defence industries. DesignTech Systems Ltd is the execution partner for the four CoEs and will run the centres for the first two years.

“With Indian industry increasingly adopting automation and digitalisation, it requires highly-skilled workers trained in future-ready technologies and processes. Siemens is committed to supporting the Indian economy to enable it to gain competitive advantage by improving its efficiency, productivity, quality and speed. The MoU is yet another step in this journey of modernisation,” said Sunil Mathur, managing director and CEO of Siemens India, speaking at a special ceremony in Bangalore on June 9.