Online professional course platform Vumi starts journey

Vumi Bangladesh Limited, a digital platform offering online professional courses, began its journey on Thursday. 

The platform's motto is to provide courses, taught by highly qualified teachers and industry professionals, for learners all over the country.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi inaugurated the platform while, Dhaka North City Mayor Atiqul Islam was present as the special guest at the inauguration ceremony at hotel InterContinental Dhaka yesterday.

Kutubuddin Ahmed, chairman of Sheltech Limited and also chairman of Vumi Bangladesh, presided over the function, while Asif Ashraf, director of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and managing director of Vumi, delivered the welcome speech.

At the programme, the founders of the platform expressed their hope that they will gradually turn it into a full-fledged virtual university to develop skilled manpower to face future challenges. In fact, Vumi means Virtual University of Management and Innovation. 

Vumi Bangladesh Chairman Kutubuddin Ahmed said the platform will impart knowledge to the learners with the help of the brightest minds of the academia, namely professors from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka, and the visionary business people of the country. 

He also said Vumi will equip learners with skills which are in high demand in the job market and also provide them with employment opportunities afterward.

"E-learning is expanding day by day across the world. The current e-learning market size is $302 billion and it will be $457 billion in future. Vumi will be a profitable online platform in future," he added.  

Vumi Managing Director Asif Ashraf said, "We will provide courses to cope with the fourth industrial revolution. At the same time, some of our courses will be designed for the people who plans to go abroad for work."

At the programme, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said, "Vumi Bangladesh has started its journey with a hope to make the country's workforce skilled. Bangladesh is making progress in all aspects, but now it needs manpower development. I think Vumi Bangladesh can meet the country's demand."

"Top level manpower in our industries is still being hired from abroad. Even I myself hire such people from Sri Lanka and India. Our dependency on foreign countries will decrease if Vumi Bangladesh can really develop skilled manpower through its courses," he said. 

Mayor Atiqul Islam said, "I believe that no people will come to Dhaka from rural areas for attending courses if they can learn from their own home. Vumi Bangladesh will give people that opportunity." 

"It is true that we cannot find homemade skilled manpower to operate our industries. I will not hire anyone from abroad if I can get qualified manpower at home," he said.

Vumi was established in 2021 with a pre-seed funding, which is the earliest stage of funding for a new company, from the iDEA Project of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division. It is also supported by industry experts who believe in its vision and ideology.

The platform will start its courses from June 2022 under three categories – Executive, Skill-up and Master class. 

BGMEA President Faruque Hassan, its former president Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, former president of Bangladesh Employers' Federation Kamran T Rahman and Dr Melita Mehjabeen Dhaka University's IBA Professor spoke at yesterday's programme.