NEW YORK, N.Y. (February 28, 2017) – AFS Intercultural Programs and the AFS Asia-Pacific Initiative (AAI) with the support of UNESCO New Delhi Office will convene the 3rd Annual AFS Asia-Pacific International Global Citizenship Education Forum, entitled “Global Citizenship Education: Essential for Employability & the 21st Century Workforce”. The event will take place from 20 to 23 April 2017 in New Delhi, India, and will tackle the interconnections between global citizenship education and employability.
Educators, representatives of corporations, governments, institutions, and others are invited to participate in the Forum to explore, understand and address the issues of our time that both hinder and help the efforts to advance the global citizenship education movement.
Distinguished speakers will present insights into why intercultural skills and global citizenship are necessary in the 21st century workplace and why developing these competencies must go hand-in-hand alongside science, math, technology and engineering within our education systems. Together with the Forum participants, they will identify the latest methodologies, research, programming opportunities and strategies for joint actions that will raise awareness of the value of intercultural and global citizenship skills in the 21st century workplace for both learners and employers. Speakers at the Forum include:
- Anantha Duraiappah, Director of UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development
- Roberto Ruffino, Secretary of the Intercultura Foundation
- Vivek Paranjpe, Advisor to the Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited
- Matangi Gowrishankar, Director of British Petroleum’s Global Leadership Academy and Head of Capability Development
- Sumer Singh, Principal of Daly College
- Senthil Kumaran, Founder of The Learners Confluence
- Namrata Jha, Director of the Institute of International Education’s New Delhi office
- Makiko Deguchi, President elect of SIETAR Japan
- Francisco Marmolejo, Lead of World Bank Global Solutions Group on Tertiary Education, and Lead Education Specialist for India
- Daniel Obst, President and CEO of AFS Intercultural Programs.
The Forum’s goal is to make intercultural learning opportunities and global citizenship education more accessible, relevant and actionable for all people worldwide, both in and outside of the classroom. It builds on two previous editions in Bali, Indonesia (2015) and Perth, Australia (2016).
Early bird registrations for the Forum are open until 1 March, while the final deadline for registrations is 14 April. More information about the program, registrations and speakers is available at the conference website www.afs.org/aiiconference.
About AFS Intercultural Programs
AFS Intercultural Programs is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit education organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. Each year around 12,000 young people take part in the AFS Programs that are supported by over 42,000 volunteers and staff in 60 countries worldwide.