Bhubaneswar: The Odisha State Open University will soon launch ‘Earn While You Learn’ programme for students. The programme will be based on workplace based learning and will be the first of its kind in the state.
The open varsity while celebrating its third Foundation Day Sunday signed an MoU with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) regarding this. Students will start getting stipend from the first month and will be attached to service sector firms, said University Vice-Chancellor Srikant Mohapatra.
The minimum eligibility criteria for the programme will remain Plus II pass and students will be selected through a screening process, said Dr Mohapatra.
The OSOU launched a mobile phone application during the celebrations for the online admission process. Delivering the Foundation Day lecture, chief guest Vivek Sawant, Managing Director of MKCL, said that education has to be autonomous and self-sufficient. Mahatma Gandhi always emphasised this, he said. Similarly, the Gandhian concept ‘Nayee Talim’ should be the basis for providing skill-based education, he added.
Sambalpur MLA Raseswari Panigrahi congratulated OSOU for achieving several milestones in its short history. Sambalpur University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Kumar Behera suggested integration of human values in the education system.
The OSOU signed two MoUs with Sambalpur University and Gangadhar Meher University to provide add-on courses to their students.
It also signed an MoU with the State Institute of Rural Development and PR to enhance the skills and managerial capacity of elected Panchayati Raj representatives of the state by providing them Rural Development courses.
In future, the varsity is planning to open study centres at the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Berhampur University, Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University and Ravenshaw University, said Mohapatra. This will equip students across the state with skills and provide job oriented courses, he added.
OSOU plans ‘Earn While You Learn’ programme
