Bhubaneswar, Sep 5: The Odisha Higher Education Department on Saturday signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with CSRBOX, Nandi Foundation and Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited (OKCL) to strengthen skill development, employability and digital learning among students across the state.
In collaboration with NASSCOM, the department also launched the ‘AI Course for All’ programme, providing students and faculty members with opportunities to acquire skills in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Under 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 offer training through online courses, workshops and project-based learning in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Digital Literacy, Enterprise Design Thinking and Project Management.
Special emphasis will be placed on students from 107 higher education institutions located in remote and aspirational districts of Odisha. Faculty members will also receive specialised AI-focused skill development training.
The MoU with the Nandi Foundation will facilitate offline training for 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 aim of improving students’ employability and strengthening their workplace capabilities.
The department has also partnered with OKCL to provide students with 30 hours of English language training and 10 hours of AI training through digital platforms. Teachers will additionally undergo a five-hour AI orientation programme.
Meanwhile, the Higher Education Department, in association with NASSCOM, launched the ‘AI for All’ programme to promote AI skills among higher education students and working faculty members. The online programme is expected to benefit more than one lakh students across Odisha and aims to equip 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 participate in a six-day Faculty Mentor Development Programme at EDII. The programme will cover entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship training capabilities, mentoring, enterprise development tools and institutional entrepreneurship ecosystems.
The initiative is expected to strengthen the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Odisha’s higher education institutions by creating a pool of trained faculty mentors capable of supporting aspiring entrepreneurs and student-led ventures.
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 evaluate the academic performance of higher education institutions across the state using 52 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) grouped under four broad pillars — Student, Faculty, Infrastructure and Activities.
The assessment framework is intended to provide institutions with a structured mechanism for evaluating academic performance and identifying areas for improvement, while encouraging them to raise educational standards.
A ‘Question Bank Portal’ was also launched in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The portal will follow a two-tier mechanism aimed at improving the quality of question papers and facilitating their preparation in line with the standards of the National Credit Framework.
