Qualification of Indian master trainers in three-year collaboration

iMOVE interview with Jens Kayser, Project Coordinator, bfz – Training and Development Centers of the Bavarian Employers' Associations gGmbH, May 2016.

iMOVE: What is the name and background of your organisation?

Kayser: The bfz – Training and Development Centers of the Bavarian Employers' Associations is the largest provider of vocational training measures in Bavaria with some 2,000 employees and about 150 training centres .

The bfz has been involved in overseas work since 1987 and has contacts and networks in 25 countries and across four continents. The bfz has its own subsidiary in the Czech Republic and China.

iMOVE: Which services do you offer in the field of vocational education and training?

Kayser: We are asked to collaborate in global learning projects, development collaboration projects, transcontinental VET (Vocational Education and Training) cooperative arrangements and in the dissemination of education and training know-how. The bfz supports hundreds of foreign entrepreneurs, skilled workers and management as part of seminars and study trips when they visit Germany.

iMOVE: How has your current collaboration with Indian partners developed?

Kayser: In 2015, iMOVE issued an invitation to tender on behalf of the Indian government for the training of vocational education and training personnel. We received the contract for the qualification of Indian trainers in the areas of welding, mechatronics and CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) maintenance as part of a three year project.

The collaboration began officially in Autumn 2015. We visited the Indian Partner Institutions – the Foremen Training Institute (FTI) and Apex Hi-Tech Institute (AHI) in Bangalore – in order to establish the precise qualification needs and the basic conditions at a local level. An Indian delegation visited us at the end of a four month preparation phase in January 2016. Milestones for future cooperation were decided in a joint planning workshop.

iMOVE: What are these milestones?

Kayser: To begin with, curricula for the Indian Master Trainers were developed. These include specialist content and also contain modules on business pedagogy as well as two practical weeks in Bavarian training companies.

From September, our sites in Aschaffenburg and Kronach will each take on the specialist training of ten Indian master trainers. These will receive training over eight weeks in both the theoretical and practical elements of their work.

The intention is that, within one year of their return, Indian trainers will develop their own courses for colleagues in India and in doing so will independently integrate new technical and methodological developments in their courses. They will receive supervision and support from bfz trainers for a total of three years while developing their own courses.