The Union Budget emphasizes skill development for future generations with dedicated allocations to empower the youth. Academicians and education experts assert that complementing academic knowledge with practical and industrial skills is essential for preparing students for Industry 5.0. K12 institutions lay the foundation with soft skills, personality development, and an introduction to the world they are about to enter. However, universities must impart theoretical knowledge alongside practical skill development to create an industry-ready workforce.
Students often return from internships with limited exposure, lacking hands-on knowledge and experiential learning. This calls for a paradigm shift within the university ecosystem from traditional and applied learning to action learning by integrating industries within universities. Establishing in-house market-linked product development and production units on university campuses can ignite passion and dedication, fostering a practical learning environment.
Students need to learn technical domain skills, professional skills, life skills, and entrepreneurship skills. This multi-pronged approach enables students to understand the diverse spectrums they will encounter in the workforce. Early exposure helps them perform better compared to those without such experience. Including a socialist approach in education and teaching students the importance of positively impacting society further enables them to thrive in their chosen fields with a humanitarian approach.
We provide skill-integrated higher education through experiential learning. With industry-sponsored labs and manufacturing units on campus, students gain hands-on experience of how industries operate. Working alongside experts, they learn problem-solving early on and can confidently lead when given opportunities. These manufacturing units serve as training grounds, while live labs offer essential hands-on training.
Such students do not just become job seekers upon graduation; they step into the world with an entrepreneurial mindset. This is achievable when students pursue courses with a vision to create enterprises. For example, agriculture has long been a mode of self-employment for farmers. Students can learn about viable technologies, automation, playhouses, drone spraying, tissue culture, and precision agriculture. Empowered with this knowledge, new-age agriculture experts can ensure better farming results and turn them into enterprises benefiting more farmers.
As universities make education more practical-oriented, they foster both employment and entrepreneurship. This is achieved by developing on-campus manufacturing units and labs sponsored by leading industry firms such as Yamaha, Dassault Systems, and Schneider Electric. A parallel model encompassing product design, development, patenting, publication, production, and commercialization must coexist with theory. Engineers should have hands-on experience creating e-rickshaws or designing cars, agriculture students should understand how to use technology to maximize yield, and paramedics should handle various situations before completing their courses. This approach ensures universities bridge the gap between practical and theoretical knowledge, a gap that is gradually narrowing due to the concerted efforts of both the government and universities.
The author is the Vice Chancellor, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha.