Exclusive Interview with Sukanta Parida: ‘Skill-First, Future-Ready’ How Centurion University is Reimagining Indian Higher Education

(MENAFN- Life and Style News) .

At Centurion University, we don’t just teach skills—we build them,” says Sukanta Parida, Director of Admission and Marketing, as he elaborates on the university’s pioneering model of skill-integrated education. From producing e-rickshaws and garments to manufacturing missile components and precision tools for India’s top defense agencies, Centurion’s curriculum blends rigorous theoretical learning with immersive hands-on experience. With industry setups built right into the campus and partnerships with global names like Dassault Systems, HAL, DRDO, and ISRO, students are exposed to real-world challenges and innovations from day one. This philosophy of experiential learning is not just a teaching method—it’s a mission to redefine employability and future-readiness in sectors like electric mobility, aerospace, and renewable energy.

Q. Centurion University is known for its strong emphasis on skill-based education. How does your curriculum integrate hands-on learning to ensure students graduate with real industry-ready skills, especially in cutting-edge sectors like defense and renewable energy?

If you look at the Centurion University’s model of skill integrated education, our campuses focus on both theoretical and practical based education. While we have rigorous theory classes to ensure that the students have thorough understanding of the concepts, we have industry set ups inside the campus where students build everything, from e-rickshaws to pens to clothes. Engineering and management students also get involved, catering to different departments say research, designing, marketing etc. Thus, for our students, there is skill integration with higher education right from the day one. We follow the philosophy that without hands-on practice or experiential learning students cannot learn concepts, which is the demand of the industry. It's an experiential learning education organization, where students come, join hands, start learning, then innovate and start producing various products.

We are extremely proud of our faculty and students as they are impacting the EV revolution, manufacturing missile components and also transformers. The university’s partnership with Dassault Systems has enabled students to get hands on experience of the vehicles. We also have CNC manufacturing inside campuses wherein we are making precision tools for aircraft components, missile components, etc. They are being continuously supplied to HAL, DRDO, and ISRO. We are a partner with them.

For Renewable energy, we have partnership with a couple of renewable energy companies. And majority of our campus energy we produced in house through renewable energy. We have solar plants in almost all our campuses. A major part of our energy consumption, say about 70-80% of it, comes from solar energy. We have an e-rickshaw production unit where we produce up to 3000 e-rickshaws in a year where we are reaping a turnover of around Rs 10 crores. They are being supplied to government and private institutions and being utilised as three wheelers, four wheelers, golf carts, waste carrying vehicles etc.

Q. Your students have built everything from missile components to electric vehicles and transformers. Could you share some behind-the-scenes insights into how the university nurtures this level of innovation and technical expertise among students?

The behind the scenes of setting up these industrial units are very interesting. When we started the transformer unit, it was just a maintenance unit. We failed for two years. The faculties, the experts, and the students investigated as to why we were failing. Then they re-worked on the plan. And today, after five years, we have become an institution which is producing 1,000 KV transformer. While people from the industry have been helpful, it is the students’ eagerness and keenness to find solutions to the problems they face. The idea is whatever industry we're talking about inside campuses; the students must be able to use this experience when they step out to look for a job. Instead of seeking internships students can look for well-paying jobs befitting their experience. As experts from industries come and manage these facilities, they also teach the students the practical part of it. And later on, students can take over these units.

Q. In a country where traditional rote learning still dominates, what challenges and opportunities do you face in promoting skill-based education as a viable alternative—and how do parents and students respond to this model?

We started Centurion university when skill integrated education seemed like a far-fetched idea. Today, if you look at our numbers, at the growth, especially after the introduction of NEP 2020, parents and students, both have started realizing that the future is skill integrated education. And thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promoting various industries, we now have a separate ministry, a separate budget, and can promote skill development programs through NSBC. Extensively, they have gone into different parts of the country, especially rural belt, trained students in different skills, started placing them, promoting students to participate in world skill competitions. Twice our students have been the champions in the fields of CNC and paramedics. They have won gold medals and were positioned amongst top three as they participated in various competitions in India, Paris and Germany. Thus, over time students and parents have started realizing that skill -integrated education is a good thing. If you possess a skill, you are employable. If you don't have a skill, you are not employable. It boils down to this.

Q. With students working on projects in aerospace, electric mobility, and power engineering, how does Centurion University collaborate with industry partners or government bodies to bring these opportunities to life?

Like I said we have liaisons with ISRO, DRDO, Tata Aerospace etc. Our students get a LIVE experience in the labs under the guidance of the faculty and industry experts. Here students also produce various components such as cryogenic machine parts, aerospace components etc. So this experience helps these mechanical engineering students, to learn about manufacturing. A student who is studying mechanical engineering with manufacturing domain finds such classes particularly beneficial. A B.Tech Aerospace student will also get ample learning experience. Another student, specialising in renewable energy has great chances of getting into Ericsson Manufacturing. With their hands on learning experience, the students are picked up from the university for placement, truly implying that these students are highly employable and ready for industry 5.0.

Q. Looking ahead, how do you see the role of skill-based universities evolving in India’s rapidly changing job market—especially in the context of Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and global employability?

Skill-based universities evolving in India is rapidly changing the job market, especially in the context of Make in India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and global employability. The entire country is focusing on skill-based education after the NEP 2020 implementation. Employability is the biggest concern. If you look at the Knowledge Commission report headed by Sam Pitroda in 2005, it pointed out that we need universities with a strong education ecosystem to make our students employable. According to that report 75% of our students were not employable. Even after getting degrees, such as engineering and other professional ones, they still lagged behind when it came to employability. Even today, maybe there is a difference of 7-10%, but situation is mainly still the same. So, if universities are not focusing on employability, they are not bringing in industry curriculum, they are not involving industry in designing and delivering and developing curriculums, then employability will be a challenge. When industry involvement is done like us, the students will not find any challenges. Infact our students are not just trained to become employable, but to create employment through entrepreneurial ventures. And this will pave the way for a much better future than we envisioned.

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