On the sidelines of the Commonwealth Education Conference in London, Ashwathnarayan CN, Minister of Higher Education of Karnataka, had met with International Skill Development Corporation (ISDC) partners and stakeholders for expanding their reach and visibility internationally and have an active presence in India with an excess of 200 university partnerships. ISDC mostly works with private and deemed universities and autonomous colleges. Ashwathnarayan met with representatives from the Institutes of Analytics (IoA), Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and World Design Council (WDC) to discuss future collaborations in order to improve education and skills in Karnataka and to transform the state into a data-literate one. Representatives of professional bodies expressed interest in working collaboratively with the government to further develop the education sector in Karnataka. ISDC will be hosting the Karnataka Education Innovation Conference in October 2022 in Bengaluru where these discussions will be put into action. It has signed a contract with Karnataka State Skill Development Corporation last year to teach finishing skills to nurses. Furthermore, the team of IoA, a UK-based professional body for analytics and data science professionals worldwide, proposed to implement a special program on data literacy specifically intended to help government employees in Karnataka improve their skills in analytics. Additionally, IoA proposed a specialised funded program for selected 1000 Engineering Graduates from the Government Colleges in association with ISDC and a fully funded data literacy program for the Schools. In another meeting, the delegates from World Design Council (WDC), World Design Organization (WDO), and UK Design Council, met the Hon’ble minister and proposed their plan pertaining to Design Thinking and expressed their interest to work with the Govt of Karnataka in this regard. The minister also held meeting with the team of the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) and expressed his interest in exploring access to SQA in the Karnataka Higher Education System. “By bringing British education and skills to Karnataka, through collaboration with UK Universities and professional bodies, will not only assist the Karnataka students to enhance their skills and expertise, but also enable them to explore career options,” the minister said. added. “We had quite successful meetings and discussions with the Hon’ble Minister along with our strategic partners. Narayan met with our partners and was optimistic about the proposals they shared to internationalise education in Karnataka. We are hosting the Karnataka Education Innovation Conference in October where we will take this discussions to the wider education audience and execution. Through these strategic partnerships, Karnataka students will be immensely benefitted and able to get global level of education. We are hopeful of a new horizon in the coming times, in which these strategic partnership will help the state to excel in Data Literacy, Design Thinking etc. and promote the internationalisation and latest innovations in Higher Education,” Tom Joseph, executive director, Strategy and Development, ISDC, said. With inputs from PTI. Read also: Springer Nature partners with Medvarsity to offer blended learning modules.