First Indo-German student exchange programme in vocational stream

Hands-on training:Students from Germany and India working at the Gedee Technical Training Institute in Coimbatore as part of the training on the move project.

As many as seven students from Germany are in Coimbatore, working on a project jointly with students of Gedee Technical Training Institute.

Together, they are developing a low cost conveyor system that can be used in industries to move components and products from one machine to another.

Werner Zahner, deputy school head of Lorenz Kaim Schule, Kronach, and G.D. Rajkumar, director of the Gedee Institute, told presspersons here on Thursday that this was the first student exchange programme between India and Germany for the vocational training stream.

The Robert Bosch Foundation and the Goethe-Institute are filling the gap with a pilot project to promote partnerships between vocational schools in India and Germany through

Training on the Move, they said.

Six students and one faculty member from the Gedee Institute were in Germany on a 12-day visit and completed part of the project. Now, after three months, seven students from Germany are in Coimbatore to complete the rest of the project.

“It’s a new technology. It’s very important in modern industry to connect machines. Just one cable has been used in this conveyor system, which is both automatic and manual. The system can be attached to any existing machinery,” said Mr. Zahner.

The students are from mechatronics stream.

International exposure

The Indian students underwent 16 hours training in Germany in programming. Such courses give cultural and international exposure to the students, they said.

Martin Rojeck, head of the visa section, German Consulate in Chennai, said 12,000 Indian students are studying in Germany.

Of these, 1,500 went from Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh last year.

The number of students going to Germany is increasing by 10 per cent to 20 per cent every year.

Most of them for their post graduate programme or research.

Now, several technical courses are offered completely in English.

Such student exchange programmes, especially in vocational training, will attract more students to Germany, he said.