How the establishment of CoEs has helped CGU in producing a future-ready workforce

Haven’t we heard this very often? The industries are not so convinced about the job-readiness of the graduates. As per a recent report by the World Economic Forum, 92% of employed people need additional education for survival or transition and 88% need continuous formal education.

The article is written based on the inputs from Prof. Rajat Kumar Samantaray, Assistant Professor at CV Raman Global University who is also an expert trainer for WorldSkills participants.

To address the skill gap and to produce an industry-ready workforce, there is an urgent need for close collaboration of industry with academia.

India’s economic growth is heavily dependent on the industry-readiness of its youth. This fact has been the focus of many discussions and dialogues involving multiple stakeholders. Taking impetus from this, many academic institutions have collaborated with the industry to enrich their higher education programs.

With an aim to address the current industry needs and to bring the industry closer to academia, C V Raman Global University (CGU), has partnered with major industries to establish Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in the university premises.

As a part of the collaboration, the global industry leaders are supporting CGU for student internships along with Research and Development as their academic partner. The main objective of these CoE is to make students industry-ready during their course of studies.

CGU’s commendable industry-academia collaboration in the form of CoEs

Currently, CGU has 25 Centres of Excellence (CoE) at its campus in the field of Industrial Automation, Process Automation, Automotive Mechatronics, Welding, HVAC, Cyber Security, Web Technology, Industry 4.0 among others.

The idea behind these CoE’s is to bring the global leaders to the university campus to strengthen the industry-academia relationship. The students, during their academic studies, get exposure to industrial modules as well as getting more hands-on practice with the latest hardware and software.

CGU has successfully collaborated with Bosch Rexroth, Siemens, Festo, Tata Technology, Schneider Electric, Mechatronika, Fronius, SEW Eurodrive, Quanser, Google and many more.

The basic criteria for the collaboration include state of the art equipment, training of the trainers (ToT), upskilling and reskilling students as well as trainers.

CGU has also created labs in partnership with major national and international companies where people have been trained not only to get skilled and understand fundamentals but also to use their knowledge to design and develop products, processes and solutions.

To have a virtual tour of the CoEs, please visit CGU’s official website and click on the CoE tab on their home page. Here is the link to their website – https://cgu-odisha.ac.in/

How is the CoEs beneficial for the future of the students?

The CoEs provide a platform for the students to learn industry-relevant courses and ensure their future readiness. The CoE at CGU has all the latest equipment from the manufacturers of global brands. Along with theory, the major focus is on practical. The students are starting the core engineering training from 3rd semester till 8th semester.

The university offers Skill Development Elective (SDE) at the Centres of Excellence, a credit based course for the B.Tech curriculum. Students are allotted two slots per week at different CoEs for the SDE courses. Most of the students are engaged with mini projects at different CoEs.

Here are some of the major benefits for the students,

• Hands-on practical knowledge which ensures their future-readiness
• World-class infrastructure and state of the art equipment
• Exposure to the industry environment
• Internship opportunities at leading industries
• Research and Development opportunities
• Right competency to participate and perform in skill competitions

Apart from helping them sharpen their technical skills, the training in the CoEs also helps the students to build the right competency to participate and perform in skill competitions. In the recently held Odisha Skill competition, 38 students from CGU have won various awards and that is a huge achievement.   

At present, the CoE’s are upgraded with the latest equipment to the existing instruments as per the WorldSkills Occupational Standards (WSOC). The students undergoing training at CoE are also getting prepared for WorldSkills competitions in parallel.

In the future, the key focus of all the CoEs will be more on Product Development, Patents, Research and Development along with supporting students for incubation.

Also read: WorldSkills Competitions need world-class training – Here’s how CGU ensures it https://nationalskillsnetwork.in/worldskills-competitions-need-world-class-training-heres-how-cgu-ensures-it/

CGU has created a unique combination of skills and education in the form of industry-academia collaboration to assure the future readiness of its students. Along with developing future-ready professionals, the university is defining new standards and implementing a variety of innovative programmes with industry involvement.