India, Australia to enhance cooperation in skill development

India and Australia will enhance cooperation in skill development in the mining sector by setting up training centres to improve productivity and minimise plant accidents.
"The current skill development engagement with Australia was at a scale of 20 people per year which will be scaled up to thousands through combination of set up of Indian centres, e-learning as well as on-site training. This will include leadership training as well as training on mine operations and safety," Goyal said in a statement after an industry-academia round-table on skill development.
The Minister has initiated collaboration with Queensland government's Centre for Virtual Mining SIMTARS (Safety in Mines Testing and Research Station).

Goyal is co-chairing 3rd India-Australia energy security dialogue in Brisbane, Australia.
He highlighted significant opportunities for skill development in India.
Goyal on the occasion also talked about Prime Minister's vision of affordable energy access for all and consequent doubling of output of Coal India itself by 2020.

Virtual mining training was showcased at SIMTARS which included labour safety, mine planning and refinery operations. Such training centres can significantly improve productivity while minimising mine and plant accidents.
While the original plan was to set up one Indian centre in collaboration with SIMTARS and ISM Dhanbad, Goyal suggested a larger collaboration with more than six centres in each of the large mining states especially in east India.

"This will help the workers in these states to ramp up their skills and fully benefit from the fruits of development. SIMTARS, Coal India Limited and ISM Dhanbad will jointly prepare a roadmap for setting up of these centres with a target to set up the first centre within the next year," he said.
During the deliberations, sports was also identified as a key enabler for the health of workers as well as for bringing significant benefits at the workplace.
Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, has committed to set up a sports university in Ranchi and is also upgrading 14 stadiums in the city.

The statement said that CCL will collaborate with sports institutes in Australia with an aim to produce several Olympians from India in 10 years.
This will help bring the best sports training practices from Australia to India as well as promote traditional Indian sports like Kabaddi and Kho kho back in Australia.
Rio Tinto, Ernst & Young, Queensland Resources Council, TAFE Queensland SkillsTech, Runge Pincock Minarco, University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, University of Newcastle as well as Indian representatives from Coal India, ISM Dhanbad, NTPC, Mining Skill Council of National Skill Development Corporation etc as well as representatives from the Indian industry were present in the roundtable.