ICRDCE The Indian Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (ICRDCE), Chennai is an initiative of Jesuit Madurai Province and a unit of Jesuit Chennai Mission. It was started in January, 1999. It is a facilitating and coordinating agency for Community Colleges in India. It has been involved in the preparation, establishment, monitoring and evaluation of 336 Community Colleges in 18 States of India. These Community Colleges are run by NGOs, Organizations/Trusts/Societies, etc., They have trained about 200,000 students in the last 20 years out of which 90 percent have got jobs and 6 percent have gone for higher education.

U.S. Consulate General Chennai

The U.S. Consulate General Chennai provides services to the citizens of the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and the Union Territories of Lakshadweep Islands, Pondicherry, and the Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the Consulate promotes people to people connections between India and the United States through programs, events, and activities that focus on mutual areas of interest. Some of these programs include U.S. speakers, exchanges, English language outreach, etc. Each year the Consulate provides grants to NGOs and non-profits to organize programs on a range of topics such as entrepreneurship, regional security issues, women’s empowerment, human rights, environmental issues, and education, among others. The Consulate’s PAS also hosts and supports cultural activities including music, dance, theatre performances, poetry slams, etc. The American Center within the Consulate is a fully equipped research facility and it regularly hosts interactive discussions, live sessions on social media platforms, and web chats on various themes.

International Conference

The U.S. Community College system is more than a hundred years old. They have developed their curriculum according to the needs of the industries and employers. They have achieved considerable success in community education and skill development that cater to the needs of all sections of the community. Over the years, ICRDCE has reached out to Community College experts from the U.S.A. to share their knowledge and expertise in curriculum development with their Indian counterparts. The International Conference on Curriculum Development fulfills this purpose and provides an international perspective. In March 2016, ICRDCE conducted a similar conference on Curriculum Development that focused on the core areas of (a) Health Science (b) Information Technology and Applied Technology in collaboration with Montgomery College, U.S.A.

ICRDCE Chennai is organizing the “International Conference on Curriculum Development for the Indian Community Colleges” on November 14-16, 2017. The Conference is sponsored by the U.S. Consulate General Chennai. During the three days workshop, U.S. and Indian experts will fine tune and finalize the curriculum, which will then be incorporated for implementation of courses with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in the coming years. There will be experts from Montgomery College, Washington, D.C. and Radford University. More than 60 experts from Indian Community Colleges, representatives from National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Tamil Nadu Open University, and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), will participate in this Conference. It will enable experts to fine tune the curriculum for the Educational Sector and Apparel Sector.