Bhubaneswar: Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA) has entered a new dimension to skilling & employability today. It has signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with world-leading tech organizations and launched three new portals for efficient service delivery in skill development for youth.
As a part of DIGITALL – a ‘5T’ initiative that aims at providing digital skilling across students, youths and working professionals, OSDA has reached a significant milestone. In the past, there have been many successful partnerships with global companies like CISCO, SAP, and others to enhance digital skills to the students of Odisha.
An MoU with Autodesk, a company that specializes in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software development, was signed today. This collaboration is a crucial part of the skills development available to technical students studying in the State. The MoU for this partnership was signed between Mr. Reghu G, Chief Executive Officer, OSDA and Mr. Conway Goh, Director, APAC at a function held at the World Skill Centre, Bhubaneswar.
The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, Mr Naveen Patnaik extended his good wishes via a video message on the occasion. He said “I am happy to know that Odisha Skill Development Authority is forging two new partnerships in its pursuit to make Skilled-In-Odisha a global brand. The DIGITAL programme aims at inclusivity and affordability in Digital Skilling for the youth of the State. I wish the stakeholders all the very best and encourage everybody to adopt the usage.”
OSDA has also partnered with Microsoft to deploy digital skilling programs for empowering undergraduates, students from vocational educational institutions and youth/job seekers, thereby enabling careers in technology. OSDA has signed three MOUs with Microsoft and their nonprofit partners to enable programs in the state that offer digital skills to more than 50K youth and explore potential employment opportunities. These MoUs were signed between Mr Reghu G, Chief Executive Officer, OSDA and Sumit Mukhaerjee, Director – Public Sector, Microsoft India.
Speaking on the occasion Mr Subroto Bagchi, Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority said “Today is a historic day for OSDA as we have forged a partnership with two giants in the tech world for Skill Development. While Autodesk will enable our students to get exposed to Digital Manufacturing & Industry 4.0, our relationship with Microsoft will lead to digital skilling across society. We hope that both Autodesk and Microsoft will create significant employment opportunities for our youth in the years to come.”
Mr Pritiranjan Gharai, Hon’ble Minister, Skill Development and Technical Education (SD&TE) said “By partnering with Autodesk and Microsoft the idea is to raise the level of technical learning and education in Odisha. Institutions, students and faculty across the entire State will be able to quickly and easily access world-class software. This will take technical learning and development to a higher level. The launch of the portals is a testament to our journey of ‘5T’ transformational initiatives to improve the effective delivery of Skill Development programs in the state”
Mr Hemant Sharma, IAS, the Principal Secretary, SD&TE Department while giving his welcome address expressed that “The collaboration with Autodesk and Microsoft creates a huge opportunity for students and youth in the State to meet international standards in engineering, giving them a competitive advantage for global employment and faculty members stay abreast of the latest engineering technology and pedagogy, including current and future industry standards and global expectations in the engineering field.”
This partnership with Autodesk intends to make design and engineering subjects accessible to the engineering, ITI, and Polytechnic students of Odisha. More specifically, it will allow 75,000 students to have access to Autodesk Fusion and generative design technology, helping to close the skills gap in manufacturing and provide the skills and resources for the future workforce. I am thrilled that this program will be available to all engineering colleges, Polytechnics, and vocational institutes in the state of Odisha.
Through this partnership with OSDA, Microsoft and its partners will make basic, foundational, role-based and advanced digital skilling accessible for underserved youth and job-seekers. In addition to the digital transformation projects in various departments of the Government of Odisha, this initiative will empower a future-ready government through digital skilling.
During this event, there were three Digital Gateways in the form of portals that went LIVE to improve service delivery of Skill Development initiatives.
- DIGITALL portal is an automated system that covers the full lifecycle of the DIGITALL program having intuitive dashboards, role-based access systems etc that will connect the Skill providers with prospective trainees in a seamless fashion for Digital Skilling. This is done in partnership with OCAC and its partner CSM Technologies
- Skills & Job Information System – A ‘5T’ initiative as a part of the department’s GOSKILL program will enable prospective employers looking for job seekers in the state to connect with each other to explore opportunities of mutual benefit. It has a facility for institutes having a centralized workflow-based placement automation system. The system also offers various dashboards and reports for ease of decision-making. This is done in partnership with OCAC and its partner ESDS
- PIA Payment Automation portal will bring in transparency and timely settlement of bills of the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) that will enable them to deliver effectively. This will be completely automated with Payment Gateway activated for the disbursement of bills. It would encourage all state departments engaged in Skilling to use this portal so that Government will get a single source of truth for Analytics. This was done in partnership with NIC.
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