Interviewed By Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee, Team MBR

Interactive Cares is one of the leading EdTech startups in the country, aiming to upskill learners and help them secure jobs. The startup recognises the industry-academia gap and designs the courses in a manner so that the learners develop the most sought-after skills. Interactive Cares has partnerships with more than 60 organisations that rely on the startup to hire talent. The startup has already received multiple prestigious investments and grants from Accelerating Asia, Open Campus Accelerator, Bangabandhu Innovation Grant, and so on. Team MBR was in a conversation with the co-founder and COO of Interactive Cares, Ms. Jamila Bupasha Khushbu, and learned about the inspirations behind Interactive Cares and her aspirations for the startup.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Interactive Cares is a startup in the EdTech niche that focuses on equipping learners with industry-oriented skills and making them ready for the job market. Would you kindly share with us how you and your co-founder came up with the idea?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: Well, this is a very interesting story. Prior to the formation of Interactive Cares, I used to work for one of the most renowned learning institutions in Bangladesh as an instructor. During that time, I realised that everyone is focused on traditional learning, which is keeping the young generation from being skilled, whereas if we look into our neighbouring countries or developed countries, their young generation is focused on both traditional knowledge and technological skills, which is making them ace in their job field. As a result, 66% of the graduates remain unemployed every year in Bangladesh. Another co-founder, Rare Al Samir, is an ex-military officer, and he had another business involving education before starting Interactive Cares. So, these pre-start-up job experiences made us realise that we needed to contribute to this education sector and make people both skilled and employable.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: As per Tracxn, there are more than 300 EdTech startups in Bangladesh. May we know how Interactive Cares distinguishes itself from other EdTech startups in the country?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: The name Interactive Cares itself is a distinguishing factor because we offer up-to-date education through interaction and care. We are exceptional because of our blended curriculums, student-friendly services, and job placement services. At Interactive Cares, our goal is to equip the learners with marketable skills so that they are in demand in the job market. Our effort to teach our learners in-demand skills and facilitate their journey to be absorbed in the job market distinguishes Interactive Cares from other EdTech startups.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Under the ‘Career Path’ programmes, learners can equip themselves with the skills on trend, such as web development, data analytics, UI/UX designing, graphic design, and so on, and explore job placement opportunities at the partner ganizations. Would you kindly share with us some statistics regarding the number of enrolled students and the success rate in terms of landing jobs?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: As of now, Interactive Cares offers 130 courses. Courses under Career Path have been designed by the top professionals in the country in their respective fields. For instance, Hasin Hayder, Sumit Saha, Md. Shamim Hassan, and Saidur Rahman Setu are some of our respected faculties. Currently, we have more than 150,000 students and more than 350,000 talents in the pipeline. Among them, we have placed 6,500 talents successfully at various reputed organisations.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: While offering online education, it is difficult to incorporate assignments, projects, tailored feedback for individuals, additional support beyond the course contents, and so on. May we know how Interactive Cares addresses these issues while offering the courses?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: Interactive Cares has a wonderful teaching panel consisting of lead and support instructors. For every career path, we have three lead instructors, two support instructors, and one class manager, along with our core team. Support instructors are facilitating assignments and projects with the help of lead instructors. Also, they are taking conceptual classes, mock interviews, and support sessions twice a day to give the students an exclusive learning experience. Also, we have class managers to manage the students, respond to their queries regarding anything, arrange batch days to motivate the students, and so on. In short, we have developed a total ecosystem to satisfy the learners and take them a step ahead in their respective careers.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Interactive Cares has partnerships with more than 60 organisations that recruit from the student pool of Interactive Cares. Would you kindly share with us how an organisation can benefit from such partnerships and how Interactive Cares grooms its students and makes them job-ready for its partner organisations?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: Right now, we have more than 60 companies in our portfolio, and we are providing them with vetted talents. We are providing these companies with our top talents, who have performed tremendously well in our career paths, securing 80%–100% marks, along with the mock interviews and job preparation module. The talents have to go through a customised task-based round that is made based on the company’s job description. Through this round, we check whether that person is a cultural fit or not. After that, we send the list to our partnered companies. This whole process is run by AI, which is incorporated into our website. We also have an AI-based customised CV/resume maker, sorter, and customised cover letter maker, which help the students build their unique CV/resume.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Interactive Cares has been awarded a prestigious grant of USD 100,000 from Open Campus Accelerator this year. Would you kindly share how this grant is going to support the upcoming plans of Interactive Cares?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: Being awarded this grant of USD 100,000 from Open Campus Accelerator is surely a matter of prestige, and this grant will be a huge boost for Interactive Cares. Utilising this grant, we will accomplish our goal of bringing more technology-focused courses such as AI, machine learning, blockchain, etc., which will help the talents get placements in global companies.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Would you kindly share with us the challenges you faced as a woman in your entrepreneurial journey? How did you overcome those challenges?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: Being the only woman entrepreneur in my entire family, I have never been encouraged to be an entrepreneur because everyone knows how much hardship one can face in the entrepreneurial journey. My family always wanted me to be a government employee. But from a very early age, I had the aspiration to work in the social sector. And I served in a lead operational role in a Sustainable Development Goal 5-based NGO before starting Interactive Cares. Seeing my sheer interest in this sector, my family finally started supporting me in my journey. My parents raised me in such a way that I never felt that I was any less than a man. I was made a very independent person from my childhood, and that made my entrepreneurial journey easier. Also, my husband and my sisters were always there to support me. So, the challenges I faced never seemed like a burden with these people beside me.

Akhlaqur Rahman Sachee: Education, whether that is online or offline, is surely a noble sector to pursue a career in. Do you have any suggestions for the aspiring women who want to follow in your footsteps?

Jamila Bupasha Khushbu: I am too young to give any suggestions. But I want to mention some useful hacks. Firstly, believe in yourself and never think less of yourself. Secondly, be very open to receiving feedback and working on it. Thirdly, learn and upgrade yourself every day with new skills and knowledge. Also, help others within your limits and respect everyone. Lastly, never compromise with all you have; compromise where necessary.