Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government entered into tie-up with several organisations to strengthen skill development, employability and digital learning among students of higher educational institutions in the state.
As part of the arrangements, the Higher Education Department on Saturday signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with CSRBOX, Nandi Foundation and Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited (OKCL).
In collaboration with NASSCOM, the department also launched the ‘AI Course for All’ programme, aimed at providing students and faculty members with opportunities to develop skills in Artificial Intelligence
As part of the MoU between the Higher Education Department and IBM–CSRBOX, more than 1.25 lakh students from Arts, Science and Commerce streams across Odisha will be covered under a comprehensive skill development programme.
The initiative will provide training through online courses, workshops and project-based learning in areas including Artificial Intelligence, Digital Literacy, Enterprise Design Thinking and Project Management. Special emphasis will be placed on students of 107 higher education institutions in remote and aspirational districts of Odisha. Faculty members will also receive AI-focused skill development training.
Under the MoU with the Nandi Foundation, offline training will be provided to final-year female students pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
The programme will focus on financial literacy, critical thinking, public speaking and communication skills, with the objective of improving students’ preparedness for employment opportunities and strengthening their workplace capabilities.
The department has also partnered with OKCL to provide students with 30 hours of English language learning and 10 hours of AI training through digital platforms. Teachers will additionally receive a five-hour AI orientation programme.
The Higher Education Department, in collaboration with NASSCOM, launched the ‘AI for All’ programme to promote AI skills among higher education students and working faculty members.
The programme will offer AI courses through online mode and is expected to benefit more than one lakh students across Odisha. The initiative is aimed at equipping students and educators with skills relevant to the rapidly evolving technology-driven employment landscape
As part of another initiative with the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), Ahmedabad, 40 faculty members from Odisha will undergo a six-day Faculty Mentor Development Programme at EDII.
The training will cover entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship training capabilities, mentoring, enterprise development tools and institutional entrepreneurship ecosystems.
The programme is expected to strengthen the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem within Odisha’s higher education institutions by developing a pool of trained faculty mentors.
The department also launched the Academic Performance Audit Portal for Higher Education Institutions and Faculty, developed in collaboration with the Odisha State Higher Education Council.
The portal will assess the academic performance of higher education institutions across the state based on 52 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) grouped under four broad pillars — Student, Faculty, Infrastructure and Activities.
The assessment mechanism is aimed at providing a structured framework to evaluate academic performance and encourage institutions to improve their educational standards.
A ‘Question Bank Portal’ was also launched in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The portal will use a two-tier mechanism to improve the quality of question papers and facilitate their preparation in line with the standards of the National Credit Framework. It is intended to support effective assessment of students’ learning outcomes and competencies.
The series of initiatives marks a broader push by Odisha’s Higher Education Department towards AI-driven learning, industry-oriented skill development, entrepreneurship, faculty capacity building and outcome-based academic assessment across higher education institutions in the state.
