BHUBANESWAR: Utkal University will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US-based University of California , Berkeley, for exchange of ideas and technical support.A three-member team of the foreign university is set to visit India on January 15. Though the place for inking the pact has not been decided yet, Utkal University authorities said it may take place in New Delhi.Soumendra Mohan Patnaik, vice-chancellor of Utkal University, said, “The MoU will help us receive technical advice on skill development and entrepreneurship from UC Berkeley. They will help us develop ideas to conduct joint projects and work on successful models. They have successfully implemented several models in Africa, America and other countries. They have the expertise to create entrepreneurs and skilled manpower.”Patnaik said entrepreneurship development and wage employment would be the twin themes of their training modules. “We will try to create entrepreneurs and skilled manpower here. The focus will be on traditional skills such as painting, architecture, appliqué work, sculpting and weaving while creating entrepreneurship models. The trainees will be taught to add value to these traditional vocations,” he added.The university will set up a rural technology park on its second campus in Chandikhole in Jajpur district as part of its skill development and entrepreneurship initiative funded by Centre’s Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (Rusa) programme.“The MoU with the foreign university will help the technology park create successful training modules. The Centre had recently approved Rs 15 crore under RUSA to carry out skill development and entrepreneurship initiatives of which the technology park is a part. It will help promote and develop indigenous technology. The park will come up on land measuring 10 acres in the middle of the second campus, spread over 68 acres at Chandikhole. It will be set up soon,” said Patnaik.Fortune 500 companies will help the university execute the skill development programmes, sources said.

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