History

Rajendra & Ursula Joshi

After his own pro­fes­sio­nal care­er, Dr. Joshi, tog­e­ther with his wife Ursu­la, loo­ked for the reasons why the local eco­no­my is so sta­ble and has a signi­fi­cant­ly lower unem­ploy­ment rate than other Euro­pean count­ries. Their rese­arch has shown that the pro­por­ti­on of skil­led workers in the­se three count­ries is more than 90%, which dif­fers signi­fi­cant­ly from other count­ries in Euro­pe and world­wi­de. What is the reason for this dif­fe­rence? The ans­wer lies in the uni­que sys­tem of dual trai­ning that pre­vails in Switz­er­land, Ger­ma­ny and Aus­tria, the so-cal­led “Swiss dual sys­tem”.

With the aim of brin­ging this excel­lent sys­tem of skills deve­lo­p­ment to India, Dr. Joshi and his wife Ursu­la estab­lished the Rajen­dra and Ursu­la Joshi Foun­da­ti­on in Switz­er­land.

Our history — from then to now

  • Ope­ning cerem­o­ny of the new BSDU cam­pus (2025)
    • On Novem­ber 20, 2025, the new cam­pus of Bhar­ti­ya Skill Deve­lo­p­ment Uni­ver­si­ty (BSDU), Jai­pur, was offi­ci­al­ly ope­ned, mar­king ano­ther mile­stone in the uni­ver­si­ty­’s histo­ry. The inau­gu­ra­ti­on mark­ed the tran­si­ti­on to a new pha­se of deve­lo­p­ment that is con­sis­t­ent­ly geared towards prac­ti­cal skills deve­lo­p­ment and inter­na­tio­nal qua­li­ty stan­dards — with the Swiss dual edu­ca­ti­on sys­tem as the sup­port­ing foun­da­ti­on.
    • The ope­ning cerem­o­ny took place in the pre­sence of high-ran­king guests from poli­tics and diplo­ma­cy. Dr. Prem Chand Bair­wa, Depu­ty Prime Minis­ter and Minis­ter for Hig­her and Tech­ni­cal Edu­ca­ti­on, ack­now­led­ged the importance of the BSDU for the future of voca­tio­nal trai­ning in India. Maya Jao­u­ha­ri Tis­sa­fi, Ambassa­dor of Switz­er­land to India and Bhu­tan, empha­si­zed the role of the Swiss dual sys­tem as a refe­rence model for per­for­mance-ori­en­ted voca­tio­nal edu­ca­ti­on and trai­ning. The sta­te pre­sence was com­ple­men­ted by Naveen Maha­jan, Chief Elec­to­ral Offi­cer of the sta­te of Raja­sthan.
    • The ope­ning was accom­pa­nied by the trus­tees of the Rajen­dra and Ursu­la Cha­ri­ta­ble Trust (RUJ CT), the BSDU’s sup­port­ing orga­niza­ti­on, and the Rajen­dra and Ursu­la Joshi Foun­da­ti­on (JCF), the uni­ver­si­ty­’s Swiss know­ledge part­ner. Their pre­sence under­li­ned the long-term insti­tu­tio­nal ancho­ring of the BSDU and the clo­se con­nec­tion bet­ween Indi­an edu­ca­tio­nal initia­ti­ves and Swiss edu­ca­tio­nal excel­lence.
    • With the ope­ning of the new cam­pus, the BSDU reaf­firm­ed its cla­im to per­ma­nent­ly link the Swiss dual edu­ca­ti­on sys­tem with the requi­re­ments of Indi­an indus­try and thus crea­te sus­tainable pro­s­pects for qua­li­fied spe­cia­lists.
  • 2025 JCF warm­ly wel­co­mes Man­fred Schmid and Rolf Sie­bold to its team.
    Man­fred Schmid has been working in an advi­so­ry capa­ci­ty for the JCF edu­ca­ti­on pro­jects at the Bhar­ti­ya Skill Deve­lo­p­ment Uni­ver­si­ty (BSDU) in Jai­pur, India, sin­ce Febru­ary 1, 2025.
    Rolf Sie­bold will take over respon­si­bi­li­ty for the JCF trai­ning pro­jects at BSDU as Head of Edu­ca­tio­nal Ope­ra­ti­ons from May 1, 2025.
  • 2024 Chris­ti­an Hans­lin is a new mem­ber of the Exe­cu­ti­ve Board from 01.11.2024. With his exper­ti­se and expe­ri­ence, he actively con­tri­bu­tes to the stra­te­gic direc­tion and fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of the foun­da­ti­on.
  • 2023 Reno­va­ti­on of first school buil­ding, start of new gate, reno­va­ti­on of second school buil­ding and admi­nis­tra­ti­on, mon­so­on shel­ters, etc. Mar­kus Gmei­ner lea­ves the foun­da­ti­on to take on new chal­lenges.
  • 2022 Resump­ti­on of con­s­truc­tion work on the hos­tel, trans­for­mer plant, water tre­at­ment plant, sewa­ge tre­at­ment plant, roads and uti­li­ty lines
  • 2021 Unfort­u­na­te­ly, we had to inter­rupt our con­s­truc­tion acti­vi­ties during Covid
  • 2020 Inau­gu­ra­ti­on of Voca­tio­nal Block1 on the new cam­pus for the auto­mo­ti­ve, elec­tri­cal and AC depart­ments
  • 2019 On Octo­ber 1, 2019, our foun­der and foun­da­ti­on pre­si­dent Dr. Rajen­dra Kumar Joshi pas­sed away
  • 2018 Con­s­truc­tion of the new uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus has begun. Mar­kus Gmei­ner beca­me CEO of the foun­da­ti­on.
  • 2017 The Govern­ment of Raja­sthan appro­ves the first Skill Deve­lo­p­ment Uni­ver­si­ty, BSDU in the pro­vin­ce of Raja­sthan, India, with inter­na­tio­nal­ly reco­gni­zed degrees
  • 2016 On April 23, the inau­gu­ra­ti­on took place with the Chief Minis­ter of Raja­sthan, Smt. Vasund­ha­ra Raje, ins­tead of
  • 2016 On March 18, the Minis­ter of Edu­ca­ti­on for Ent­re­pr. Govt of India, Shri Rajiv Pra­tap Rudy, to BSDC
  • 2016 The first four basic cour­ses for poly­me­cha­nics star­ted on Janu­ary 4
  • 2015 Our first Train the Trai­ner cour­se for poly­me­cha­nics star­ted on June 15
  • 2014 Start of con­s­truc­tion of the Bhar­ti­ya Skill Deve­lo­p­ment Cam­pus (BSDC) with class­rooms and prac­ti­cal trai­ning rooms, stu­dent resi­dence and can­teen
  • 2013 Purcha­se of 30,000 m² of land in the Mahin­dra World City indus­tri­al zone (SEZ) in Jai­pur for the con­s­truc­tion of the cam­pus
  • 2013 Mar­kus Gmei­ner took over as Head of Pro­ject Manage­ment.
  • 2011 Mar­kus Pfen­nin­ger was recrui­ted as an expert for the trai­ning of poly­me­cha­nics
  • 2010 Orga­niza­ti­on of two spe­cia­list trai­ning cour­ses in Switz­er­land for elec­tri­ci­ans and power dis­tri­bu­tors in the elec­tri­cal trade
  • 2009 Pro­gram deve­lo­p­ment for intro­duc­to­ry expert trai­ning cour­ses
  • 2008 Initia­ti­on of Swiss coope­ra­ti­ons in the field of elec­trics and elec­tri­ci­ty
  • 2007 Launch with first pro­mo­tio­nal pre­sen­ta­ti­ons, dis­cus­sions, press con­fe­ren­ces and TV inter­views in Raja­sthan
  • 2006 Initia­ti­on of the Vishwak­ar­ma app­ren­ti­ce­ship pro­ject