NewsMaker project launched by ASEAN
The ASEAN News Maker Project will soon give an opportunity to school children to share their rich and diverse cultures with their peers in ASEAN countries. Led by Singapore and endorsed by the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI), this initiative will engage close to 500 primary and secondary school students across the 10 ASEAN countries to produce informational video content which showcases their country's culture and lifestyle. The COCI has been supporting projects to nurture talent and promote interaction among ASEAN people to help preserve and promote ASEAN's diverse cultural heritage, while fostering regional identity as well as cultivating people's awareness of ASEAN.
MoU on cooperation in education to be signed between India and Malaysia
India and Malaysia have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in education. As a prelude, the two countries set up a task force to look at issues of equivalence of the degrees in India and Malaysia. The norms of 'equivalence' will facilitate the mutual recognition of each other's educational degrees. These steps were decided upon at a meeting between Malaysia's Minister for Higher Education Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Union Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal in Kuala Lumpur. The two met on the sidelines of the 17th conference of the Commonwealth Education Ministers. India's High Commissioner to Malaysia Ashok Kantha took part in the talks.
DoST provides for Scholarship programme
The Department of Science and Technology (DoST), Philippines has posted their scholarship program which will benefit those who take up courses or May want to take up fields of study related to Science and Technology (S&T) disciplines. First of their four scholarship programs is the Junior Level Science Scholarship (JLSS). JLSS is intended for all regular 3rd year college students throughout the academic year 2009-2010 who are at present enrolled in state universities under any of the subsequent recognised priority S&T courses, namely: Agricultural Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Engineering, Physics and Statistics, among others.
There are also scholarships available
for those professionals engaged in research, fresh graduates, and on-going MS/PhD students who took courses in Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources, Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Environment, Fisheries and Marine Science, ICT Material, Science and Engineering, Mathematics, Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Microelectronics, and Physics.
Genpact to provide training to Bhutanese Graduates
Gurgaon-based business process outsourcer (BPO) Genpact will train Bhutanese graduates to help develop the IT and IT-enabled services industry in the Himalayan nation. The training will begin with a batch of 50 graduates, who will be hired and trained at the operation centres. The US$1-billion global back-office firm will also work with the Bhutanese government and Royal University of Bhutan for training in business processes across industries, including voice, finance and accounting and IT services. The exact investment involved was not disclosed. Incidentally, Bhutan is the only country in the world that gauges 'gross national happiness' as a measure of economic progress.
Asian classrooms with cellphones
The latest and seventh volume of the 'Digital Review of Asia Pacific', that was recently released highlights the power of new communication technologies in the field of education. In the Philippines, the cellphone and SMS are being used as the primary means for interactive learning. SMS is also being used to inform students of schedule changes, deadlines, examination regulations, grades, new courses and library resources. Student groups and organisations use the cellphone to publicise social activities, job fairs and book discounts as well as for voting in student elections. University administrators use cellphones to coordinate the admissions process to conduct marketing campaigns and announce grants, surveys, policies and emergency information like bad weather and suspension of classes.
Aptech views Vietnam with potential for IT growth
Aptech Limited, the global retail & corporate training solutions major, commemorated 10 years of success in Vietnam recently. Since 1999, Aptech has been training the Vietnamese youth on state-of-the-art IT education through its network of 38 training centres. Aptech in Vietnam has trained over 40,000 students in areas of Software Education, Animation & Multimedia and Hardware & Networking, since it's inception.
Aptech's flagship ACCP programme is among the most popular IT training programs in Vietnam. Aptech has localized its course curriculum by translating it into Vietnamese. Aptech has been rated as the No 1 IT Training organization in Vietnam for six consecutive years (2003-2008), by IDG and Ho Chi Minh Computer Association. Vietnam is one of the most important emerging IT markets in Asia. The country's IT sector has grown more than 20 percent annually.
