Sharing Education Knowledge Internationally

West London College was honoured to host Dame Asha Khemka, Director of the Institute for Apprenticeships, and a delegation of education experts visiting from India this week.

The educational group included Jayant Krishna, Executive Director and COO of the National Skill Development Corporation and Shabnam Sinha, Senior Education and Institutional Development Specialist with The World Bank in New Delhi, as well as Anna Yerokhina from the education company Pearson.

The group was welcomed to the college by our Principal and CEO Garry Phillips, before Dame Asha gave an insightful and thorough background of FE in the UK, the needs of students and employers and the recent apprenticeship reforms.

The forum brought to light several important issues, including the challenges both India and the UK share in providing universal childcare for returning learners, as well as other challenges around Government involvement in apprenticeships and providing quality infrastructure. 

They were then taken on a tour of the college, with a particular focus on our Childcare and Hospitality & Catering departments, before settling down to a light lunch put together by students in our TASTE Restaurant.  

Shabnam said: “We had several meetings with organisations like City & Guilds and Ofqual which were very helpful in helping us understand local qualifications and awarding bodies. But the most useful part of our trip is the hands-on visit to WLC to see it all in operation. We have a lot of jobs coming into the services sector, and this visit has been incredibly helpful.”