Delhi: The Central Queensland University of Australia (CQUniversity), which recently celebrated its 20 years of association with India and South Asia joined hands with Infosys Limited, a leading Indian multinational IT company to strengthen collaborative efforts on training, education, and upskilling for the youth and corporates. This collaboration catapulted during the CQUniversity’s visit to India in November 2022 with the help of Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ), and now takes form of the first-of-its-kind cross-border academia-corporate partnership.

Commenting on the partnership, Professor Nick Klomp, Vice Chancellor of CQUniversity said, “This is a landmark partnership between an Australian university and Infosys. We believe that through our partnership with Infosys, CQUniversity will be able to speak to the Australia-India education strategy of providing world class educational content that builds capacity, is accessible and most importantly delivered in-country.”

As a part of the partnership, a MoU was signed. The MoU is a re-skilling initiative building on the Springboard collaboration, wherein CQU shall offer course modules on economics, finance, and journalism with Indian universities. The content generated through these courses will be available free of charge to Indian nationals. Additionally, the MoU also covers Wingspan association wherein CQU will offer their expertise in public health, nursing, and allied healthcare sectors, making training modules accessible to Indian healthcare sector and other relevant stakeholders. This initiative will allow Infosys’ corporate partners to have access to training modules from CQU and further help in upskilling.

This partnership between CQU and Infosys was supported and coordinated by Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ), Government of Queensland’s dedicated global business agency. Sharing his thoughts on this collaboration, Mr. Abhinav Bhatia, Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner, South Asia at Trade and Investment Queensland said, “With CQUniversity’s promise to provide access to quality education globally, and Infosys’ commitment to upskilling the global workforce, this momentous partnership for digital upskilling will impact countless Indian students and professionals. Corporate-academia partnership is the way forward to address the skill gap and train the workforce to develop new skills. This partnership will become a model for more such engagements between Indian corporates and Queensland (Australia) institutes.”

CQUniversity happens to be the first Queensland University to partner with Infosys on two of their learning platforms, Springboard and Wingspan. The academic modules will be targeted at young adults, Indian healthcare sectors and speaks to the Australia-India education strategy of providing world class educational content in-country that is accessible. The partnership will therefore be instrumental in shaping the academic programmes centred around re-skilling and upskilling of global workforce.