eLearning was introduced to the world at the turn of the century in 1999. While the field was progressing steadily, the turn of this decade has suddenly made it imperative. This year, as we redefine our ways of living and learning, online learning platforms and EdTech Companies have entered a fast-track mode facilitating the changing needs of the current education system.
US-based byteXL, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform caters to a huge number of students on its platform. One of the advantages that this platform offers is that it can reach to any nook and corner of the country where there is access to the internet and students have a mobile device.
The platform is capable of online self-guided learning and has reading materials, Videos, Hands-on labs, assessments, and discussion boards. Currently, there are 20+ programming languages and the platform also offer instructor-led expert programming in Career tracks like Cloud/DevOps, AI/ML, Full stack Developers, QA Automation, UI and Backend Developers.
Bridging the Gap
The Founders, Karun Tadepalli (Co-founder & CEO) and Pavan Gorakavi (co-founder & CTO), while working as technology leaders often saw a huge gap in the academic world and IT industry needs. The duo spent a couple of years before starting the company, brainstorming ideas on how they can contribute to improving the productivity and efficiency of early entrants into the IT field.
Karun visualized the need for practical and structured learning to reduce the skill gap of the newly hired college grads. He says, “Along with India’s focus area of IT Services industry, byteXL seeks to open the larger canvas of product-based ideology through Learning/Skilling and Upskilling which are integral to both. byteXL also creates awareness of the IT Career path for students who have the opportunity for careers in Corporate or as Entrepreneurs.”
Along with Pavan, at byteXL, he was able to formulate a plan and created a structured learning course for IT programming languages along with steps to create a career path by understanding the skill set of the students. They later partnered with Mr. Raman (Executive director) who has been in the industry for 30+ years helping most of the engineering institutions in India to set up their labs.
Byte-sized Solutions
byteXL’s solutions fall under the following categories:
Explore – A completely online and self-guided learning platform offering 20+ programming languages. Learning is achieved through reading materials, Videos, Hands-on labs, assessments, and discussion boards.
BCAP – A 2-3 years comprehensive program for all engineering students to get trained in Foundation, advanced level courses and Expert track in the chosen career track. The trained students are also provided with Placement support, Resume preparation, Soft Skills prep, CRT and Coding challenges.
Entrepreneurship Program – It is a six-month comprehensive Academic Incubation program for 3rd/4th year engineering students from CSE/IT/ECE branches. It offers skill training and product forming guidance in emerging technologies. Workshops are conducted on business basics, and writing business plans, leadership skills, presentation skills, business etiquette and more.
Key Differentiators
byteXL’s 2-3 years program is augmented to the engineering curriculum, focused on a career path like AI/ML, Cloud/DevOps and Full stack development and more tailor-made to the needs of the IT industry. This is a big differentiator as most existing competitors offer in time training for 2-4 months which might be helpful for job placement but not complete landscape to build a real project or capable to build a product from the ground up.
Besides, the platform has an in-built editor that can support 20+ programming languages which can be leveraged in any browser and any device. It provides in-depth analytics on the platform to both the faculty and students of the engineering colleges to track their progress and learning path. It also has the capability to choose a career path based on the AI skills assessment and access to an in-person career counsellor. It has also partnered with Leading India AI (an initiative to promote and teach Artificial intelligence) and various companies to help students with placements to start a career based on their skills and interests.
Renovate and Reinvent
One of the main challenges ailing the industry is the need to inculcate the idea of continuous learning to the students as their only focus in the early career is to get a job. In the current world where technologies are evolving very rapidly, upskilling is crucial. There’s a need to create awareness in the tier2 and tier3 colleges or rural India about the in-demand skills rather than just focusing on the hype technologies.
The team suggests that colleges should work with companies like byteXL to emphasize on the aspect of learning and reduce the gap from academia to real-world, create a centre of excellence, allow students to contribute on open source technologies rather than just focusing on the curriculum.
byteXL wants to develop itself as a one-stop-shop for IT learning/skilling/upskilling and innovation. “Our vision is to make the youth of India to be an invaluable part of the world workforce with required specializations, be able to develop products and empower individual goals,” concludes Karun
