Don Bosco technical educational institutions in India and Sri Lanka have decided to form a national network and formulate a common curriculum and national certificate programme for the training of youth. This was resolved in a meeting held at Don Bosco Rural Resource and Training Centre in Umran, Meghalaya. The three day meeting, December 7 – 9, was attended by 43 delegates representing 78 institutions from 21 States in India and Sri Lanka. They met with representatives of German technical collaboration with government of India (GTZ), and Belgian international agency, DMOS-COMIDE, and representatives of the government of India Directorate for Employment and Training, and reviewed the functioning of Don Bosco technical institutes, and chalked out strategies for the future. The members set up an ad hoc committee to formulate future plans and draft a curriculm at the national level for formal and non-formal technical education. Brother Cyriac Kurias sdb, Director of Don Bosco Technical School, Lucknow, and Secretary of the ad hoc committee told BIS that Don Bosco is the biggest non-government organisation in the technical education sector in India, and hence we need better networking and planning at national level. He said every year more than 12,000 students pass out of the Don Bosco technical institutions in India, which are together offering some 410 different courses. Father Paul Kuttala sdb, Director of Don Bosco Technical School, Shillong, and national president of the Skills for Progress-India (SKIP), who was elected president of the ad hoc committee told BIS that “the new body would like to foster collaboration with the government, like-minded NGOs and partners in imparting technical education to the youth of our sub-continent”. He welcomed the partnership and collaboration of agencies like GTZ and DMOS-COMIDE which have worked hand in hand with Don Bosco technical training institutes in imparting technical education to thousands of youth in the country. Salesians of Don Bosco, which runs numerous formal, non-formal academic and technical educational institutions all over the country, are currently celebrating the centenary of their presence in India. Brother Kurias told BIS: “Vocational training, being the key to economic empowerment of youth in our country, is a major priority for the Don Bosco institutions.”