‘Education Must Focus on Skills, Not Just Degrees’: Dharmendra Pradhan

Former Union minister and Sambalpur MP Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday laid the foundation stone for the Residential Internship and Skill Hub for Industry (RISHI) building at Odisha State Open University (OSOU) on Teachers’ Day.

Pradhan also launched two new courses—Self-Healthcare & Wellness and AI Tools for Collaborative Learning—to strengthen teachers’ skills.

He said one of the education sector’s biggest challenges is closing the gap between academic degrees and employability. He stressed that practical education and job-oriented skills should receive greater importance instead of treating a degree as the sole measure of success.

According to Pradhan, the RISHI project will offer students industry-oriented practical training and help them become self-reliant. He also urged young people to become job creators rather than only job seekers, particularly amid global economic uncertainty and supply-chain disruptions.

Pradhan said nearly one crore young people in Odisha, about a quarter of the state’s population, belong to the ‘Amrit Peedhi’ and will play a major role in shaping Odisha’s future.

He recalled OSOU’s difficult early years after its establishment in Sambalpur in 2015. Following government intervention, ₹20 crore was sanctioned under PM-USHA for infrastructure development. The university, which once had almost no admissions, now has around 40,000 students, he said.

Pradhan also announced plans to develop Sambalpur as a skill laboratory, with OSOU offering short-term, employment-focused courses for rural youths unable to attend regular schools or colleges.

He further said audio-visual laboratories would be developed to train around 1,250 content creators and influencers, who could use social media to promote their villages’ culture, traditions, temples, natural beauty and rural economy globally.

Pradhan said innovation, practical skills and digital awareness would be increasingly important in tackling challenges linked to artificial intelligence and cybercrime and in supporting social development.