MOU between Retailers Association’s Skill Council of India (RASCI) & Service Skills Australia (SSA)

April 11, 2013

Retailers Association's Skill Council of India (RASCI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Service Skills Australia (SSA) - Australia's Industry Skills Council for service industries including retail on the 11th of April 2013 in Mumbai to collaborate in developing the skill ecosystem benefitting Australia and India, the 5th largest global retail destination.

During Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's state visit to India last year, both the PMs had welcomed collaboration in key industry areas including retail, mining, agriculture, telecommunications and entertainment between Australian and Indian Skills Councils.

The MoU was signed by the Chairman of RASCI, Mr. Bijay Sahoo, and CEO of SSA, Ms. Jeanette Allen, in the presence of Steve Waters, Australian Consul-General to Mumbai, representative from National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and James Raphael, Vice President of RASCI.

Australian Consul-General to Mumbai, Steve Waters, said "I welcome this cooperation between our two countries' retail skills councils. Such collaboration is of great benefit to both nations in building high quality, industry led trained workforces. This agreement is the testament of Australia India Education Council’s (AIEC) commitment to building strategic skills partnerships between India and Australia," said Mr. Waters.

"Today marks an exciting milestone in our partnership. Key areas of co-operation include creation of occupational standards, processes for affiliation of training partners, assessment, certification and stakeholder engagement," said Mr. Sahoo.

"This MoU expands existing cooperation between SSA and RASCI. It recognizes the value in industry engagement and in the development of work appropriate standards in the field of retail skills training" said Ms. Allen.

The event was attended by the who’s who from the Indian Retail Industry like G R Venkatesh, Head - People Office, Retail Businesses, Future Group; Bidisha Banerjee, Senior Manager - Talent Design and Development, Future Value Retail; Arun Vishwanath, Human Resources & Organisational Learning, Infiniti Retail Ltd. (Croma); Ahtesham Siddiqui, Head HR, Trent Hypermarket Ltd and leaders from Retailers Association of India (RAI).

There was a great deal of support from the Australian side with the presence of representatives from Australian Education International (AEI) India, Australia India Education Council (AIEC), Australian Trade Commission, Mumbai, and Innovation & Business Skills Australia.