Face-to-Face Collaboration with Industry for ODE in India

Abstract

Continuing education as a means for capacity building at the grass-roots has gained momentum in developing countries. Such an effort has been optimised by Institution-Industry Collaboration. India, a developing nation, has resorted to the use of distance teaching to fulfill the needs of continuing education. Since its inception, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has focussed its efforts on catering to the needs of the Indian society. It has joined hands with industry to meet the continuing education needs of the under privileged and less privileged in the society. The witness to this move is the collaboration between IGNOU and Hero Honda Motors Limited. The outcome of such collaboration is the IGNOU-HHML Motorcycle Technicians Competency Development Project. The present study is an attempt to collect the opinion of the targeted beneficiaries about the Programme that they had undergone. The opinions or views have been collected using non-participant observation technique and structured interviews. The views of an expert, who functioned as an examiner in the term-end trade test of the participants, are also collected. Results reveal that the institution-industry collaboration between IGNOU and HHML has opened an avenue for continuing education of the mechanics in India.