The Indian education sector has been an entirely offline affair traditionally. The advent of the internet and increased access to the digital sphere has transformed this system. E-learning and digitisation have opened up new and exciting pathways within the education space and allowed vastly more people to attain knowledge and qualifications. When coupled with the increased proliferation of home computers and internet-capable smart phones, and supported by affordable data nationwide, this change has gradually been taking place over the last decade. Learning online is also the edge that is making the change flourishing. This has not only changes the way knowledge can be garbbed but also openned a different set of career opportunities for entrepreneurs. To explore the opportunities such firms/ startups offer to the education paradigm, Sheeba Chauhan of Elets News Network interacted with Abhishek Gupta, Co-founder and CBO, Learnbay. Edited excerpts:
Incepted in the year 2015, Learnbay witnessed more than 300 percent growth from revenue. How has been your journey throughout? Please shed some light on the hurdles in your path.
Learnbay started its journey in 2015 with Python training and eventually added a system designing course. In the meantime, others were providing various courses with industrial and foreign certifications. It was pretty challenging concerning other competitors. Because more than quality teaching, students were attracted to courses offering industrial certification.
AI and Data Science, as we all know, is the most trending technology of today and the future. So in 2017, we launched our first professional data science and AI training course with job assistance.
We never reduced the quality of our teaching because we promised specialised training with 1:1 assistance for students. Likewise, Learnbay never promises false notions with an eye catching feature or staff.
One of the major problems we faced outside our organisation was the change in the data science job market. Very few data scientists hone domain knowledge. Our certified course with domain specialisation helps students to gain domain knowledge and land a lucrative job within six months of course completion.
Today in 2022, we have more than 30 trainers and domain experts from various MAANG with more than five years of experience. We are building our workforce to more than 100 employers. In the era of personalization, we offer personalised data science and AI courses to professionals and our candidates.
What are the live projects Learnbay provides to the students, and how is it impactful?
Learnbay offers live projects from different domains. This enables students to work on live capstone projects of a specified domain. For example, we provide live capstone projects for domains like sales, marketing, HR, healthcare, BFSI, telecom, automotive, manufacturing, e-commerce, supply chain, oil, gas and energy, media, hospitality, and transportation.
Students learn and enhance their skills by working on live projects and even finding a solution for real-world problems that organisations face daily. So students would know which are the latest trending tools or have been used by experts or professionals of top MAANG, MNC, and leading start-ups. So students who complete our courses with domain specialisation are recruited faster because of the live capstone project they have worked on.
What are the benefits of domain specialisation and hybrid courses for students?
Domain specialisation is honing knowledge in a particular field or domain. It enriches students’ knowledge in one specific domain. Students do not have to work again on a domain after course completion; on the other hand, organisations hire candidates with domain knowledge. Because organisations do not want to train candidates with domain knowledge, they want candidates with domain knowledge so they can start working from day one.
The new age of learning is all about live online courses. Hybrid courses let students learn in both ways. Students can learn theoretical lessons from live online courses and complete their live capstone projects in hybrid classrooms because students can work on live projects collaboratively with other batch mates in hybrid classes (project innovation lab). Moreover, students can clear all their doubts on projects in hybrid courses and get a solution from our trainers. This will even help students to complete their projects along with the course.
The platform offers practical training on various technical courses, including data science, AI, web development, and software development, tailored to its learner’s individual needs. So why is Skilling and reskilling need of the hour?
Currently, data science, AI, and software development are the technologies top organisations leverage for business growth and customer satisfaction. These are advancing technologies that yet have to gain their maximum potential. Organisations’ traditional languages and tools have become outdated, and most professionals are experts in their fields. But after the technological advancement of data science and AI, almost all the leading organisations and start-ups are product or service based; all are working along with data science and AI.
So, organisations either lay off employees or have to build a new team with new-age skills and tools that the organisation is working on. This is where reskilling and up-skilling are crucial for any professional, it can even be a computer engineer or any other technical degree.
As I said earlier, it is a new era of learning, and every product or service is personalised today. Learnbay has also personalised the courses with domain electives and live projects. Currently, even organisations look for candidates with many personalised skills and domain knowledge. This is how Learnbay helps professionals who want to reskill or up-skill their ability to be updated with the current technology and its applications..
What are the expansion plans for Learnbay, and any plans for the product portfolio?
We have expanded every aspect, from adding new team members to courses, batches, offices, and hybrid classes (project innovation lab). Learnbay has grown from 30 members to over 100+ members. We have made a few changes to our courses and have added a full-stack software developer course with domain specialisation. We have reduced the number of members in a batch. So it becomes easy for trainers to concentrate on every student in the class.
Learnbay recently added a Full-stack software developer course with domain specialisation and even opened up a hybrid class (project innovation labs). Students and professionals can complete live projects in these hybrid classes and with other batch mates for collaborative learning. These are the recent growth and products that have been added to our organisation.
