City & Guilds In Talks With Kuoni For International Training Programme Tie-Up

Joy Roy Choudhury- Kolkata

The UK-based City & Guilds, which has provided assessment and certification services since 1878, has chalked out major plans for South Asia. Keith Bakr, regional director- South Asia, City & Guilds, informed that countries in South Asia like China, India, Sri Lanka would be major focus area of City & Guilds in the next couple of years.

Elaborated Bakr, “City & Guilds is in talks with Kuoni Travel Company, India for a possible arrangement, so that students undergoing travel-related courses at Kuoni Academy of Travel can avail of the internationally acclaimed programmes of City & Guilds. We are looking for training organisations where we would get staff and equipment to meet out international standards and Kuoni Academy of Travel meet our requirements. But we are yet to take a final decision on the same.”

The institute has recently set up its South Asian office in New Delhi with representative offices in the other three metros in the country. Said Bakr, “We have invested substantially on building up an infrastructure in India and are in talks with several players from fields like, IT, hospitality, tourism, engineering etc for tie-ups as training partners for our vocational programmes.”

He further added, “In India, our objective will be to promote our training programmes and help the adult workforce to increase their work skills to ensure international employment.” At present, City & Guilds carries out assessments in over 22 occupational sectors. The International Vocational Qualifications (IVQ) are competence-based awards that combine underpinning knowledge with practical assessment and are designed specifically for use internationally with generic occupational standards. IVQs are available in two routes, vocational (craft) and technician, and are usually available at three levels: certificate, diploma and advanced diploma.