Swiss Education Centre inaugurated in Pune

Pune, 24th May 2023: The Indo Swiss Centre of Excellence, Pune (ISCEP) was inaugurated last Sunday at the hands of Dr. Abhay Firodia, leading industrialist and the Chairman of Force Motors and Padma Vibhushan Dr. R. A. Mashelkar who Presided over the function. Florin Mueller, Head of the Swiss Business Hub India, Dr. N. Reguraj, MD, Nettur Technical Training Foundation, Prakash Apte, Founder – Director of ISCEP, Jayen Shah, MD of Fine Organics, Satish Rao, President of the Swiss Indian Chamber of Commerce, Mukesh Malhotra, Chairman of Weikfield Group & ISCEP and Ashwini Malhotra, Director of Weikfield Group & ISCEP were also present at this inauguration ceremony.

Set up at Koregaon Bhima off Nagar Road, ISCEP is a not-for-profit organisation registered under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013. The vision of the organisation is to impart the highest standards of skills training by applying to the Swiss Vocational Education System (Swiss VET), which is acclaimed as one of the best in the world. ISCEP intends to address the following key missions of the Government of India, namely: Skill India, Make in India, Employability of rural youth, increasing Agri productivity and use of sustainable technologies.

Mukesh Malhotra, the Chairman of ISCEP welcomed the guests and stated that the main goal of this “lighthouse” Skilling Centre ISCEP was to “impart the skills of tomorrow to the youth of today”.

Dr. N. Reguraj, MD – Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF) spoke about 6 decades of NTTF’s presence in India, specifically for Vocational training on the basis of Swiss VET (Vocational Education Training). Their 20 institutes PAN India have churned about 4000 graduates per year, with a 100% placement in the industry. He assured all present that NTTF will make the ISCEP Centre one of the best futuristic centres in India and Asia.

Florin Mueller, Head – Swiss Business Hub India presented compliments on behalf of Hon’ble Swiss Ambassador Dr. Ralf Heckner and Hon’ble Swiss Consul General, Mumbai Mr. Martin Maier. Mr. Mueller has also assured full support and co-operation to ISCEP for and on behalf of the Swiss alliance.

Padma Vibhushan Dr. Raghunath Anant Mashelkar mentioned that Switzerland is at the top position when it comes to global innovation index whereas India is at the 48th. This Indo – Swiss collaboration will prove to be helpful for India to move up the Innovation ladder. It goes without saying that innovativeness brings about an improvement in quality at an affordable price. Dr. Mashelkar spoke about the “Inspirational skills” of the future, i.e.: exponential technology as well as “Future-ready” skills. Some jobs may go but new jobs will come in. The index and criteria are changing. The displaced workers need to be taught and replaced through reworking and skills upgrading. He emphasized that critical thinking is a must since it is not man versus machine, but man and machine. Humans are producing machines and not vice-versa. He strongly advocated that “India @ 100” should also be “Bharat @ 100” by the time our nation celebrates a century of its Independence in the year 2047.

Dr. Abhay Firodia, Chairman – Force Motors mentioned that talk of Switzerland would conjure images of Swiss chocolates or Swiss watches. Quality is uber in all their products and hence ISCEP is also bound to be “super-uber” in every aspect. He broached about the qualities of people overseas (Switzerland, Germany or Japan, etc.) where discipline is inculcated from the start thus ensuring that quality in all aspects of their life never ever gets compromised. Speaking about education in Switzerland the Swiss VET holds the highest emphasis not just on academic laurels but on vocational & skilling as well. Innovation is their other focus which is very crucial for the development of any country. Finally giving the example of 1 + 1 (could be 0 or 2 or even 11), it is our behaviour consisting of skill, quality and work ethics that will bring our country on par with the world standards on education or work. For that, we just have a 5-year window period.

The other members on the dais, namely Prakash Apte, Jayen Shah and Mr. Satish Rao also addressed the audience. The programme ended with a Vote of Thanks by Ashwini Malhotra and the singing of the National Anthem.