Edinburgh College supports Mauritian partners to develop their electric bus maintenance skills
Representatives from Edinburgh College recently travelled to the island of Mauritius as part of a British Council-funded project which will help partner organisations in the country develop electric bus maintenance skills.
Edinburgh College Curriculum Leader for Automotive Engineering, Kieran Lydon, visited lead partner Saint Gabriel Technical College (SGTC) along with the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development (MITD), where he met with partners and toured their facilities, ahead of hosting a delegation in Edinburgh later this year for a course of applied learning in electric bus maintenance skills.
This international skills partnership, supported by funding from the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme, focuses on supporting trainers in Mauritius to develop their own heavy electric vehicle maintenance skills and to enhance their knowledge of working with the technology. With the use of electric bus fleets on the rise across the country, this project contributes to the Mauritian initiative to modernise public transport in line with the country’s transition to cleaner, more sustainable modes of transport.
During the trip, Kieran visited the National Transport Corporation (NTC) to see the electric bus fleet and maintenance facilities there, hosted by Dr Pradeep Soonarane, the NTC’s Managing Director, with the British High Commissioner to Mauritius, Mr Paul Brummell, CMG also in attendance.
HSBC Mauritius’s Head of Sustainability, Mr Yan Hookoomsing – one of the programme’s partners – also organised a round-table event featuring a number of local leaders, including Prof Kiran Bhujun, of the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Research, the project leads at the Ministry of Land Transport working on a national electric vehicles framework, Ministry of Education TVET officials, the MQA, and the Ministry for Financial Services and Economic Planning’s officer for the Energy and Transport sectors in the development of the Mauritius 2050 Vision and Action Plan. At this event, Kieran outlined some of Scotland’s climate change response and particularly the College’s related links to Transport Scotland and electric vehicles.
As a key part of the visit, Kieran was able to brief and prepare relevant training staff from both SGTC and the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development (MITD) prior to their forthcoming course in Edinburgh later this year.
Alain Beche, the Principal of Saint Gabriel Technical College, provided a warm welcome to Kieran and the Edinburgh College delegation to Port Louis, alongside Naweid Fakeermahamood, Programme Manager with British Council Mauritius.
Alain Beche, said: “It was a great honour to welcome Kieran Lydon of Edinburgh College to Mauritius as part of this important international partnership. This collaboration represents a valuable opportunity for Saint Gabriel Technical College, the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development, and our transport sector partners to strengthen expertise in electric bus maintenance and sustainable transport technologies. We are grateful to the British Council and all partners involved for making this initiative possible and look forward to further strengthening our relationship with Edinburgh College in the years ahead.”
Sandy Bruce, Head of Department, Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering at Edinburgh College said: “We’d like to place on record sincere thanks to everyone involved in the project, and to the British Council for supporting the visit. We look forward to welcoming representatives from SGTC and the MITD to Edinburgh later this year and to working together with them on the next steps of this project.
British Council Going Global Partnerships supports universities, colleges and wider education stakeholders around the world to work together towards stronger, equitable, inclusive, more internationally connected higher education, science and TVET.